Hello there, RANTers!
I know you guys have missed me a whole lot because it has been years (more than four years to be exact) since I last RANTed here on my blog, and I know that one of the things you guys might be wanting from me is an update on things that happened to me during my hiatus.
Not to worry. I am just about to do that now on this fabulous RANT.
Shall we get started now? *wink*
5. Book-ish
Yes, you all got it right, dearies. I still am the bookworm that I used to be.
As you may all know, have been attending the Manila International Book Fair since time immemorial, but, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do so last year because of some changes that happened in my life (we’ll get to that later, I promise).
Anyway, I got to be honest that during this hiatus of mine, I have only read more than twenty books, and I have got to say that most of them are simply astonishing and entertaining to read.
One of those literary pieces that I have read was the Game of Thrones series because I got really curious on what the fuss was all about the t.v. series with the same title, and honestly speaking, I only lasted until the first part of the third book. Well, I got to say that Cersei really disgusted me all throughout the books by saying that she feels incomplete without her twin brother being inside of her, which is why she resorts to their cousin instead for sexual pleasure. Ugh! Just thinking about it gives me shivers all over my body.
All is not lost, however, because one of the books that I have read gave me a lot of surprises and butterflies in my stomach. I could say that this could possibly be the my next favorite book to the Harry Potter series. The one that I’m talking about is “Simon vs the Homosapien’s Agenda” which was turned into a movie eventually (and they did the literary piece justice). It was about finding who your teenage love is when you both haven’t actually met each other and was just communicating through the e-mails you send each other, and overcoming the tragedy of being outed as a homosexual by one of your schoolmates because they weren’t able to get what they wanted from you when they tried blackmailing. Fun story, eh?
4. What’s On Your Mind?
Great news! I now have found my very first paying job, and you might be wondering where or which institution I’m working at. All I can say is that we will be getting to that point in a few seconds, so please bear with me for just wee bit more.
Anyway, one of the jobs that I got is supporting special needs people with their activities of daily living. Oh dearie, I must say that this is not your ordinary type of special needs because I’m referring to ones who have a lot on their plates, which includes possibly having bipolar disorder and might develop Multiple Personality Disorder. One can say that this could put an employee’s safety at a high risk, specially with a client who has the tendency to be violent and/or has history of violence. In fact, I have a first-hand experience myself because I have been a victim of an assault. I’m pretty sure that piqued your curiosity a little bit, but if I will be discussing the details of what happened to me, then I’m pretty sure that you will all get bored by the end of this post.
On the other hand, the other job that I have is providing assistance to elderly people. Honestly speaking, this job is a whole lot more relaxing than the other because whenever I work with my clients on this job all I had to do was either to talk to them, to give them companionship, and to accompany them on their medical appointments for a couple hours or so.
We can say that there are pros and cons with both jobs, and I like both of them equally; as of the moment that is.
3. Rainbow Ibarra
During my extremely long vacation from blogging, you dearies might think that I have been inactive, or somehow have not continued, with fighting and supporting LGBTQ+ rights; our own fundamental rights. This could partially be true and we’ll get to that in a short while.
Yes, it is possible that I could have been inactive in the movement because I was not posting that much about what I believe in on any of my social media accounts. One of the possible reasons for this is because I don’t want to RANT on any of these media platforms, and I wanted badly to do so here on my blog. Trust me, dearies, it was one difficult time for me.
No, because I am a part of the Rainbow Community, and I consider myself as one of its defenders. I have not forgotten our fellow brethren just because I have been inactive on my blog. As a matter of fact, the LGBTQ+ Community has always been on my mind most of the time. Just seeing people of the same gender holding hands and being lovey-dovey on the streets puts a huge grin on my face. Observing that non-binary people being recognized and respected in the media and on every single street in the entire world just makes my heart grow fonder in these times.
We could say that I have not forgotten my duties and responsibilities to our small yet strong Community.
2. One Heck of A Test
Have you guys noticed anything on how I composed this article? Let’s just say that I have already partaken on possibly one of the most dreaded exams in the entire world; the International English Language Testing System Exam, also known as I.E.L.T.S. Test; and this all happened almost three years ago.
In actuality, I though at first that I would only hone my skills with the Listening Test and Speaking Test, but that was not rally the case. I was enlightened by the deities of language that I need to do a really hard work on all of the tests, and that includes reading and writing; and to think that I might ace the exam because I already own a blog myself. Hell no! The gods slapped my face and told me that this homosexual needs a lot of polishing to do, and boy were they right.
In my own experience, I think the most taxing part of the exam was the Speaking Test. Oh boy, was I literally shaking during that interview. Well, because first of all, that was the very first interview I have ever had after graduating from college. I just do not know how to proceed with things. Secondly, the interview was done with someone who is considered an expert on the language itself. Just imagine me sitting in front of the examiner with my hands clasped together underneath the table because I was trying my very best to stop my entire being, body and soul, from shaking and cause the building to collapse. That was how nervous I was.
Okay, I might be exaggerating a little bit about that part, but I was not joking when I told you that I was absolutely shaking for an entire fifteen minutes. Yup, it was fifteen minutes of heart-pounding hell.
*phew!*
Oh, you might be wondering if I will ever edit my past blogs since some (or most, rather) of them has a lot of grammatical errors that could make Donald Trump one of the brightest brains in the entire world. My answer to that, my dearies would be, “NO”. It is because I will be needing some constant reminder that I was being such a Mr. Know-It-All with the English language during my Pre-IELTS Test. I like to slap it right on my face, thank you very much. Plus, my haters would have a lot of bullets that they can put in their lame guns and shoot at me. *wink*
Now here we are, the grand finale.
With everything I have stated above, it all comes down to this one; and I consider this as one of the highlights of my life.
What I am about to tell you, my dearest RANTers, happened to me when the BER months were just about to come in the Philippines back in 2017. The letters that me and my dad have been waiting for more than three years have finally arrived on our e-mails (or my e-mail for that matter). Our passports were being asked by the Canadian Embassy for Visa stamping. There were simply no words to describe how I felt (and I will try to describe it anyway) during that time. There were a lot of mixed emotions on that period of my life. Bliss, anxiety, and the feeling of being lost all came to me at the same time.
I felt blissfulness because I will be finally with my partner after a long time of being apart. It has been more than four years since he landed as an immigrant in Canada, and knowing that we will be finally together in one place, in one province in another country, just gave me a lot of butterflies in my stomach.
I felt anxious because I will be missing my friends in the Philippines when I emigrate, but most of all, my sister and her son who will be just by themselves once we are living out of the country.
The feeling of being lost came to me because I don’t know how to start a new chapter in my life. It’s going to be a different country and I was pretty darn sure that I might experience culture shock or something of the sort. It also came to my mind that I might not be able to practice my profession in the new country that I will be living in, and that I might have to go through a lot of steps to be able to do so.
Then I simply thought to myself one positive thing: that I have been preparing myself for this event since Mom told me about this. I have researched on the things I need to do first before the day of our flight arrived; and that includes, of course, migrating to Canada with my dearest cats, and taking the IELTS exam so that I can easily apply to any school or any job that requires proof of proficiency of the English language.
Lo and behold! I have been living here in British Columbia, Canada since November 11, 2017. It was definitely a rough start for me, and all I can say is that all of the difficulties I have faced for the first year in this country was all worth it. I know that there will be more obstacles ahead of me, but at least I can say now that I have roughened up a bit more and that I am ready to face the incoming hardships head on.
Well, there you go dearies! I hope you enjoyed reading this RANT of mine, even though it was a pretty long one.
From hereon forth, you guys can expect that I will be trying my very best to at least post twice a month here on my blog.
