A Wedding Absentee

I had a vivid dream of attending wedding of my close friend from high school, Chi-yao, last night. It’s one of those dreams where you can’t really separate dream from reality even after waking up. The conversations, and witty replies we had at each other were just the kind of things we’d say to each other if it actually happened.

The funny thing is, I have been a wedding absentee my most of my adult life — It’s the result of circumstances. Come to think of it, my absence in weddings is the result of ONE constant circumstance that I’ve been dealing with all my adult life — immigration status.

I missed my college best friend, Brian’s, wedding in Austria because my OPT was expiring and was waiting for SCAD to get me a work visa. At the time, I was advised not to travel because I may not get back into the U.S. if the visa is not resolved. That really aggregated me.

I also missed most of my high school friends’ weddings because most of them were held in Taiwan when I simply wasn’t able to attend them.

I missed another good friend’s wedding in South Carolina while working in NYC because of weather conditions. Stupid weather.

Chi-yao is getting married in Feburary, 2007. And I won’t be able to attend it because of my passport woes.

The upside is, I did manage to go to two weddings — Murdza’s wedding in Savannah (with a REALLY geeky theme) and our friend Deon’s wedding held here in California.