Middle Child Meets World: Travel Essays by Carmel Ilustrisimo

Description

In Carmel Ilustrisimo’s Middle Child Meets World, this collection of travel essays redefines the phrase “meet you in the middle.” It allows the reader to enjoy the rawness of travelling — not the kind glamourized by reels or criticized in forums — but the middle ground: flipping through pages the way our grandfathers used to and simply relishing the present.

In an age where our default is to search and scroll through travel reels curated by influencers and content creators, Middle Child Meets World invites you to take a break from your phone and experience travel in its unfiltered, unedited form — one not stitched together by video-editing apps designed for short attention spans. The collection offers a realistic perspective on travelling, made more interesting by itinerary mishaps, unexpected injuries, near‑scams, and unanticipated adjustments, like climbing flights of stairs to the highest floor because no elevators were available.

In the middle of all this, one finds comfort in egg coffee, samgyetang, hot teas (figuratively and literally), and the company of loved ones — both the living and those who continue to live in our hearts. Ilustrisimo’s essays do not present travel as an escape from the past or present in pursuit of a better future — as people often imagine travel to be — but instead give us the courage to confront life as it is, while every anecdote on the journey reminds us of home.

Middle Child Meets World invites us to enjoy the center and the full picture, and to do the one thing we often neglect nowadays: savour.

-Bienangela Mapagu, playwright, dramaturg