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By Ruel S. De Vera Associate Editor DEFINED by the spaces we gain consciousness in, we expand horizons but only to the limits of what surrounds us. Filipinos are born into socio-economic classes which are driven home by where we reside. Be it hovels, one-room apartments, old apartments, high-rise studio condos, townhouses which go up and down, charming bungalows, split-level houses and mansions; we are where we live. Once we leave home and graduate from school (itself another form of housing) we branch out in search for a new home, one which we will define, shaped by what we are capable of and ultimately what we earn. This is the sliding scale of adulthood vis a vis a dwelling. We start off staying with our parents or in laws, then move on to a tiny apartment somewhere where we will struggle to be ourselves in an ever crowded universe. Even the structures around us, the structures we pass and enter and exit, they define us as well. The Big Dome is about big events, big games and big concerts. Our schools start out small because we are small and grow, first unto high school, a measure even in the name, all the way to the higher learning that comes with college and beyond. Perhaps the worst thing is to not be able to go home anywhere. We have a semi-humorous term for it, NPA (No Permanent Address), which is just another term for homeless. In that sense, it is an individual exile that is particularly galling because everyone else has a permanent address. It is the kind of loneliness and being alone that is unforgiving and cannot be forgiven. What keeps them going? A dream of a place all their own. That house, the one we finally own, the one we finally planned and built, is the dream. It is the single moment of definition and self-actualization. This house exists in all our heads, and, in a unique melding of planning and lives, duplex dwelling in the minds of married couples. What furniture shall we buy? What color will our walls be? Where does the TV go? And what kind of dog do we get? Imagine all the opportunities that had to have been taken to reach that point, when you are able to conceive of a house, inside and out, and actually bring it into fruition. As Queen once said: “It’s a kind of magic.” It is an idea finally made concrete, a dream made real. Read about the next step in condominium living in the Sept. 27, 2009 issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.