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ltgmarsJust felt like doing this. Sometimes it seems like I know a bunch of little things about people, but not any of the basic, big things. So in case you're curious...
Name: Inez, which is theoretically a combination of my mother's nickname and my dad's name with a "z" instead of an "s", but is actually a real name. Nice try, though, parents.
Age: 22.
Hometown/Background: My hometown is South Bend, Indiana. I was born in Indonesia, in Depok (just outside of Jakarta, though it says Jakarta on my birth certificate). My mom, brother, and I moved to the US when I was six months old because my dad was already here getting his Ph.D. at Notre Dame. We've been here ever since. My parents became naturalized US citizens when I was in high school.
Occupation:
Student. I just graduated from Haverford College, a small liberal arts college that no one's ever heard of outside of Philadelphia. I majored in East Asian Studies with a concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and this coming September, I'll be headed to Los Angeles to get my Master's in East Asian Studies at UCLA.
My academic interest lies mostly in gay culture within Japanese society. My senior thesis was based on a memoir by Tsubaki Ayana (a New Half talent); I looked at her work in the context of three other works within the canon of "Japanese gay literature" and then made some literary/historical/social connections. No, you can't read it. But I did get a 4.0 on it, so the department liked it, at least. :D
Relationship status: Single. I was going out with a guy two years my senior named Isaac for nearly three years (since my freshman year/his junior year), but he's currently an ALT through the JET program (and has been for two years), and the long-distance relationship was really hard on me, so I broke up with him in September. We're still on friendly terms, and the other day he sent me the last of his Arashi fan club pamphlets (yes, he joined the fan club for me, and he hit on tickets for the January Nagoya concert, but we'd broken up by then so I sold the tickets for him). He really is a good guy, and I miss him sometimes, but honestly it's been nice not being in a relationship and feeling all of that pressure and guilt for not being good at contacting him/resenting the long-distance relationship.
Parents:
My mother and father both work at Notre Dame (human resources and computer consultant/analyst respectively).
My mom and I used to have little spats while I was in high school; during that time, I typically characterized us as constantly fighting (I even gave it a percentage: 80% fighting, 20% getting along). I think our relationship really repaired itself while I was away at college. Since I've had my space and ~*~independence~*~, it feels as if she lets me be and trusts me to make my own decisions, and that's been immensely helpful. We still get into screaming matches occasionally since I get my stubbornness from her and I find her nagging terribly irritating, but I guess that's how it's supposed to be. :D? For the most part, we're pleasant and we laugh together more than we ever did when I was in high school.
My dad and I get along really well. He lectures me a lot on exercising and eating right and saving money and being productive, but I find that he's really easy to be around. Plus, we have the same kind of dorky sense of humor, so I enjoy it whenever he makes a joke that sounds like something I'd say.
Siblings: Older brother. Most people think that I'm older than he is with the way I talk about him, but he's actually 359 days older than I (we're Irish twins!). He pretty quiet and antisocial, and he's kind of a nut job who doesn't take a lot of things seriously, which is why he's going to finish college three years late even though he graduated valedictorian of his high school class. But he's really funny and clever, and incredibly smart and meticulous about the things he cares about. We have the kind of low-key relationship where we can not speak to each other for an entire semester, and then I'll come back and grunt at him and that'll be it, and then we'll go out to lunch and talk about anime and school and nothing like it hasn't been six months since we last saw each other. He lives at home with our parents and he only has one really good friend who's still local, so I get the feeling he gets lonely when I'm not around; he seems happy when I'm at home because I share his interests and hobbies, so we've been watching anime every night all summer. Mostly, I'm really grateful that we still understand each other even though we don't talk at all. We're really close in a kind of non-social way, which works out for me pretty well.
Friends:
Non-LJ friends you'll hear about with any frequency are my college friends: the good folks of Suite Executive* (Harrison, Will, Gabe) and Halley (who went to Bryn Mawr but whom I met in the Bi-College orchestra; she was my stand partner from day one, and we actually have the same birthday (fate? I think so)). I don't keep in touch with most of my high school friends with the exception of Claire and Beth, and even those two I only talk to once in a long while.
Halley's probably permanently in Seattle, and Suite Executive is probably permanently somewhere on the east coast, so I'll miss them when I end up probably permanently in California. But I'm so happy to have met them, because I feel like they're going to be people I can really depend on for the rest of my life.
*So named because senior year Gabe and I were co-chairs of Honor Council, and Harrison and Will were co-presidents of Students' Council (so basically the four of us were the heads of the two big student groups on campus), and we all lived in a suite together. Yes, it was planned, because we're awesome.
Influences:
The biggest influence on my life and politics is actually probably my thirteen years in Catholic school (grade school and high school). I'm not Catholic, but my parents decided it would be a "better education" for us. In some ways, I suppose it was (religion as a concept is really interesting stuff, and it was nice to do all different kinds of charitable things as a part of a big group), but in other ways, it's precisely because I went to Catholic school that I've come to reject a lot of what it tried to teach me. It's the reason I don't really agree with institutionalized religion. It's also the reason I'm so staunchly socially liberal and so passionate about gay rights (though the people I met in college definitely helped to shape and refine those parts of me). Living "on the cusp", per se, with the people who weren't Catholic or who were gay or who were more than happy to question authority with me, led me to resent the Church -- the systematic discrimination against the people who were so close to me -- and to find my own truth to believe in.
One of the only things that makes me angry -- really, truly angry -- is bigotry and intolerance, and that's because I grew up for thirteen years learning from intolerant people. I try my best to understand other people, to be understanding of viewpoints that I don't agree with and to sympathize with others' troubles, because for thirteen years my teachers didn't. (This is, of course, mainly about religion classes and religion teachers. I've had a lot of really wonderful, caring, open-minded teachers otherwise.)
That's not to say that I think people who practice religion are inherently bad or intolerant, just that the way my Catholic school teachers were blindly and arrogantly shoving intolerant doctrine down our throats wasn't quite to my liking. I'm a theist myself; I just prefer to believe in God the way I see him, and not the way a bunch of old men in Europe are telling me to see him.
... and since that was a really heavy way to end this, maybe one more category?
Currently: I'm currently working for my dad's boss at Engineering and Science Computing at Notre Dame. I work in my dad's office. It has really terrible reception, so I've stopped taking my cell phone to work because it just kills my battery and no one contacts me anyway.
Oh! And one more category!
Fun facts!
0. I love fun facts, apparently.
1. I'm literally the clumsiest person I know. I have a lot of stories about opening doors into my face, walking into furniture, tripping over nothing, etc.
2. I'm really easily startled, and it usually involves jumping and screaming, even if someone is right in front of me and moving very slowly. (Anecdote: Near the end of the year, we were talking in the hall, and Gabe happened to be standing at his door. About five seconds in, even though I already knew he was there participating in the conversation, the fact that he was standing there entered into my consciousness, and I screamed so loudly that one of our friends from downstairs came running up, worried.)
Hahaha, I like to talk a lot about myself, apparently. Kudos to anyone who got to the end. I'd say it's "your turn", but only if you want to. :D
Name: Inez, which is theoretically a combination of my mother's nickname and my dad's name with a "z" instead of an "s", but is actually a real name. Nice try, though, parents.
Age: 22.
Hometown/Background: My hometown is South Bend, Indiana. I was born in Indonesia, in Depok (just outside of Jakarta, though it says Jakarta on my birth certificate). My mom, brother, and I moved to the US when I was six months old because my dad was already here getting his Ph.D. at Notre Dame. We've been here ever since. My parents became naturalized US citizens when I was in high school.
Occupation:
Student. I just graduated from Haverford College, a small liberal arts college that no one's ever heard of outside of Philadelphia. I majored in East Asian Studies with a concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and this coming September, I'll be headed to Los Angeles to get my Master's in East Asian Studies at UCLA.
My academic interest lies mostly in gay culture within Japanese society. My senior thesis was based on a memoir by Tsubaki Ayana (a New Half talent); I looked at her work in the context of three other works within the canon of "Japanese gay literature" and then made some literary/historical/social connections. No, you can't read it. But I did get a 4.0 on it, so the department liked it, at least. :D
Relationship status: Single. I was going out with a guy two years my senior named Isaac for nearly three years (since my freshman year/his junior year), but he's currently an ALT through the JET program (and has been for two years), and the long-distance relationship was really hard on me, so I broke up with him in September. We're still on friendly terms, and the other day he sent me the last of his Arashi fan club pamphlets (yes, he joined the fan club for me, and he hit on tickets for the January Nagoya concert, but we'd broken up by then so I sold the tickets for him). He really is a good guy, and I miss him sometimes, but honestly it's been nice not being in a relationship and feeling all of that pressure and guilt for not being good at contacting him/resenting the long-distance relationship.
Parents:
My mother and father both work at Notre Dame (human resources and computer consultant/analyst respectively).
My mom and I used to have little spats while I was in high school; during that time, I typically characterized us as constantly fighting (I even gave it a percentage: 80% fighting, 20% getting along). I think our relationship really repaired itself while I was away at college. Since I've had my space and ~*~independence~*~, it feels as if she lets me be and trusts me to make my own decisions, and that's been immensely helpful. We still get into screaming matches occasionally since I get my stubbornness from her and I find her nagging terribly irritating, but I guess that's how it's supposed to be. :D? For the most part, we're pleasant and we laugh together more than we ever did when I was in high school.
My dad and I get along really well. He lectures me a lot on exercising and eating right and saving money and being productive, but I find that he's really easy to be around. Plus, we have the same kind of dorky sense of humor, so I enjoy it whenever he makes a joke that sounds like something I'd say.
Siblings: Older brother. Most people think that I'm older than he is with the way I talk about him, but he's actually 359 days older than I (we're Irish twins!). He pretty quiet and antisocial, and he's kind of a nut job who doesn't take a lot of things seriously, which is why he's going to finish college three years late even though he graduated valedictorian of his high school class. But he's really funny and clever, and incredibly smart and meticulous about the things he cares about. We have the kind of low-key relationship where we can not speak to each other for an entire semester, and then I'll come back and grunt at him and that'll be it, and then we'll go out to lunch and talk about anime and school and nothing like it hasn't been six months since we last saw each other. He lives at home with our parents and he only has one really good friend who's still local, so I get the feeling he gets lonely when I'm not around; he seems happy when I'm at home because I share his interests and hobbies, so we've been watching anime every night all summer. Mostly, I'm really grateful that we still understand each other even though we don't talk at all. We're really close in a kind of non-social way, which works out for me pretty well.
Friends:
Non-LJ friends you'll hear about with any frequency are my college friends: the good folks of Suite Executive* (Harrison, Will, Gabe) and Halley (who went to Bryn Mawr but whom I met in the Bi-College orchestra; she was my stand partner from day one, and we actually have the same birthday (fate? I think so)). I don't keep in touch with most of my high school friends with the exception of Claire and Beth, and even those two I only talk to once in a long while.
Halley's probably permanently in Seattle, and Suite Executive is probably permanently somewhere on the east coast, so I'll miss them when I end up probably permanently in California. But I'm so happy to have met them, because I feel like they're going to be people I can really depend on for the rest of my life.
*So named because senior year Gabe and I were co-chairs of Honor Council, and Harrison and Will were co-presidents of Students' Council (so basically the four of us were the heads of the two big student groups on campus), and we all lived in a suite together. Yes, it was planned, because we're awesome.
Influences:
The biggest influence on my life and politics is actually probably my thirteen years in Catholic school (grade school and high school). I'm not Catholic, but my parents decided it would be a "better education" for us. In some ways, I suppose it was (religion as a concept is really interesting stuff, and it was nice to do all different kinds of charitable things as a part of a big group), but in other ways, it's precisely because I went to Catholic school that I've come to reject a lot of what it tried to teach me. It's the reason I don't really agree with institutionalized religion. It's also the reason I'm so staunchly socially liberal and so passionate about gay rights (though the people I met in college definitely helped to shape and refine those parts of me). Living "on the cusp", per se, with the people who weren't Catholic or who were gay or who were more than happy to question authority with me, led me to resent the Church -- the systematic discrimination against the people who were so close to me -- and to find my own truth to believe in.
One of the only things that makes me angry -- really, truly angry -- is bigotry and intolerance, and that's because I grew up for thirteen years learning from intolerant people. I try my best to understand other people, to be understanding of viewpoints that I don't agree with and to sympathize with others' troubles, because for thirteen years my teachers didn't. (This is, of course, mainly about religion classes and religion teachers. I've had a lot of really wonderful, caring, open-minded teachers otherwise.)
That's not to say that I think people who practice religion are inherently bad or intolerant, just that the way my Catholic school teachers were blindly and arrogantly shoving intolerant doctrine down our throats wasn't quite to my liking. I'm a theist myself; I just prefer to believe in God the way I see him, and not the way a bunch of old men in Europe are telling me to see him.
... and since that was a really heavy way to end this, maybe one more category?
Currently: I'm currently working for my dad's boss at Engineering and Science Computing at Notre Dame. I work in my dad's office. It has really terrible reception, so I've stopped taking my cell phone to work because it just kills my battery and no one contacts me anyway.
Oh! And one more category!
Fun facts!
0. I love fun facts, apparently.
1. I'm literally the clumsiest person I know. I have a lot of stories about opening doors into my face, walking into furniture, tripping over nothing, etc.
2. I'm really easily startled, and it usually involves jumping and screaming, even if someone is right in front of me and moving very slowly. (Anecdote: Near the end of the year, we were talking in the hall, and Gabe happened to be standing at his door. About five seconds in, even though I already knew he was there participating in the conversation, the fact that he was standing there entered into my consciousness, and I screamed so loudly that one of our friends from downstairs came running up, worried.)
Hahaha, I like to talk a lot about myself, apparently. Kudos to anyone who got to the end. I'd say it's "your turn", but only if you want to. :D
