This year has definitely been a major roller coaster ride for all of us around the world. After such a long time of not posting (again) I decided to write a apost to highlight the importance of these hard times…especially due to certain circumstances that I feel have to be talked about. I wouldn’t feel okay with simply writing another post after months of hiatus as if nothing had happened during these past few weeks and past few months. Now, normally I don’t really write serious things in general—mostly because I don’t feel like it would be my place to talk about them— but it wouldn’t sit well with me if I just did not post something about what’s and just went on to review or do a first impression post as if nothing had happened. So…here goes.
George Floyd—Black Lives Matter
I decided to put George Floyd first on the update list because I feel like this topic deserves to be heard more. This affects all of us—whether we like it or not. Racism has been going on for centuries on end and has been covered up or denied for the longest time. Now, thanks to social media, it’s being covered more and is being pointed out more often these past few years. Many people—especially in the predominantly white U.S. and some of its territories—don’t see racism as an issue because it doesn’t affect them directly. “White privilege doesn’t exist” and “All Lives Matter” are really common phrases amongst those who complain about the current events taking place. In Puerto Rico, many don’t see race as an issue because “we all have the same ancestry”, “we’re all a combination of white spaniard, black slave, and brown indeginouse island people”, “racism doesn’t exist here”, but many others would say otherwise.
As for the protests/riots that have been going on, I do understand why it’s happening. I’m not exactly 100% in agreement with destroying/vandalizing businesses/establishments, but I do understand why people would do that. It’s because everyone’s tired of being discriminated against. They’re tired of not having their own voices heard. They’re tired of having to fight this one-sided battle where the majority don’t even bat an eye until someone loses their life. There are many sites for donating to stop police brutality. I will link all of them to this post since they’re really important. I feel like we should be talking about this more.
I feel like the most important thing to do (other than being active in the movement) is to be educated for the future. My brother (not biological but we’re really close) asked me what my thoughts are on the past riots that happened on the island. Last year in the summer of 2019 Puerto Rico was in protest against the now ex-governor—Ricardo Roselló— for a corruption scandal and a leaked government group chat that contained discriminatory slurs against women and the LGBTQ community.
He [my brother] said that he wanted to know more about those times because he wanted to feel less lost by being better informed. I responded with “Good. Being informed is the best way to be prepared.” Knowledge is best because it keeps our minds open. We only lose knowledge once it’s closed off with only the things we think we know. Niel deGrasse Tyson once tweeted: “A great challenge of life: Knowing enough to think you are right, but not enough to know you are wrong”.
One of the sites that are donating is the Hunicast crew. They’re going to have a stream to donate for Black Lives Matter with the Helluva Boss cast on Tuesday. If you like Helluva Boss, Angel from Hazbin Hotel, voice acting in general or simply wish to donate, please check it out. If you wish to check out other sites to donate, check out this thread on twitter or if you’re broke but still want to help, here is a thread of youtube videos that you can stream to help donate for blm associations.
COVID-19
We have all been affected by COVID-19 one way or another. All of us ended up locked in our homes with no idea how our lives will ever go back to “normal” and we ended accepting this as our “new normal”. Those of us who graduated this year (I am happy that I finally did graduate from my bachelor’s) had to celebrate the graduation in front of a computer screen/phone/tablet (as I am writing this, the “Dear Class of 2020” on Youtube event happened) I say congratulations!!! But also remember to celebrate with friends online and with your family at home. I actually celebrated my graduation with my roommate. She asked a friend of hers to bring some beer as a graduation gift. She doesn’t drink, but she asked them to bring it for me (which I thought was incredibly sweet). The downside to this is that around the globe, people were filled with dread and despair because, for once, the future was absolutely unknown. The economy hit an all-time low and everyone collectively became afraid of being beside someone outside of their home. These times really make you think of everything that you once took for granted.
While these living conditions are terrifying to say the least, we all had something to ground us/keep us sane. For some it was binge-watching on entertainment, for others it was learning new things that we never had the time to learn, while the rest did something such as exercise, yoga, meditation or basically anything to keep their minds off of this reality we’re all living in.
For me, I practically did all of the above. I made a schedule for myself as a means to always have something to do throughout the day. One day, I was listening to “Sea” by BTS and the lyrics themselves made me calm down a bit. “Where there is hope, there’s despair” (translated from Korean to English). Those words really struck home for me. I decided to live by those words and ended up buying maybe 5 self-improvement books to learn not only about myself but about those around me. If I wanted to hope for a better future with everything going on, I wanted to understand others better to help create a better world for us to live in (as cliché as that sounds).
Since the first day of quarantine, the governess set a curfew for the entire island. At first, it was at 9 PM, but now it’s at 7 PM with it being okay to come out at 5 AM. However, of course, there are people who don’t really care about the curfew and stay out until who knows when. It didn’t really matter to me since I rarely went out unless I needed to, way before the quarantine even started. I think it’s the fact that it’s now forced that it took away the feeling of relaxation being at home used to bring. Once again, I’m digressing. I guess I just needed to word my thoughts and observations throughout this entire situation in one way or another (if you’re still reading by now, thank you by the way).
What’s Next?
I’m finally on Summer break from my first semester in my Master’s program. Lately, I’ve been taking a lot more time for myself instead of working in all aspects—from writing here on the blog to working on my new piece of fiction. The sad thing about this is that it’s always in the back of my mind like a child poking and asking you to constantly play with them. In fact, Reese and I share my boards on Trello for what the new piece of work or what the new post should be. I also have noticed that I do have a bad sense of accountability when it comes to writing—which is why she and I use Trello so we can set up due dates for certain tasks and posts ( this isn’t sponsored by Trello by the way. I just love using it). I have considered maybe someday becoming a voice actor and also start to stream on Twitch just me playing otome games. There wouldn’t be a facecam though due to personal reasons, but I would still like to try. I’m still on my journey in trying to see what I enjoy doing. I know that I enjoy creating and feel happy when someone enjoys what I make; however, I still want to find out what I am truly passionate about and how I can turn my passion into something that I can do without any excuses holding me back.
This doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop writing here. In fact, I love writing. It’s one of the things that keeps me sane (mostly journaling). I still have yet to post a few things—especially with this month being Pride Month. I just don’t want to continuously sound like a broken record though I probably do sound like one already. Just…thank you all for being patient with me (again).
I do hope you all enjoyed reading this and I thank you so much for being here. Until next time, keep your paws and bowls of ramen up—keeping a safe social distance of 6 feet from someone else. Take care.
The Kitten Who Eats Ramen 