Even with his acting career taking off, Xian Lim is even more determined to accomplish his academic and athletic goals.

For Fil-Am actor-model Xian Lim, the past year has been a fun and unexpected ride.

With a 6’2” frame, good looks, and a laidback and easygoing personality, 19-year old Xian easily stands out in the crowd. This is perhaps the reason why he is part of two ABS-CBN shows “Your Song Presents” and “Katorse” – within the space of a year.

And yet, all he wanted to do was play ball!

“I came to the Philippines to play basketball. My whole life, I wanted to become a basketball player. I was a player already in the States and I was hoping for the same here. But I didn’t know that I would fit here in showbiz,” Xian quips.

Born and raised in California, Xian still grew up proud and aware of his Filipino heritage. Filipino is also the preferred language at the Lim household.

Unwittingly, this helped lessen the inevitable culture shock when he decided to move to the Philippines.

“It really wasn’t hard to adjust, marunong na akong makisama sa mga tao,” he says. “Some people from the States come here thinking that they’re kings. I don’t have that mentality.

Besides, mas masaya ang mga tao dito. They tend to smile a lot. Maski may problema, nakangiti pa rin. In the States, walang pansinan, you’re on your own.”

But some things about this country still take him by surprise. Like the weather perhaps?

“Yup, the weather,’’ he laughs. “But the biggest shock to me was the minimum wage. When I left San Francisco, the minimum wage was $7.50 per hour. Here it’s like P200 per day. In the States, I worked at a restaurant, at a warehouse. You can’t do that here. People look at it differently.”

It also turned out that getting into college basketball wasn’t as easy as Xian had hoped.

“I found out that I had to wait two years for my residency so I could play basketball for the University of the East (UE). But I played Team B. So while I was waiting for two years, I decided to do modeling, before someone offered me to try acting and they put me in an acting workshop. I found out that it was really, really fun and I learned to love it,’’ he recalls.

The demands on his schedule have also meant that he had to put his Management studies at UE on hold – and along with it his hopes of pursuing a basketball career. “When Katorse started, finals na, and the schedule at school got really hectic. I’m still enrolled, but on leave. I’m coming back after the show.”

If it all, Xian is even more determined to accomplish his academic, athletic and acting goals. He’s even considering taking up a Film course at the University of the Philippines. The road ahead of Xian seems happily busy but wherever his journey may take him, Xian says that for sure, he will do nothing but his very best.