Devastation, monarchy, and a new office
Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022 - 5:31 pm.

The results of last Sunday’s voting were devastating. I wasn’t too confident that the new Constitution would be approved, but I didn’t expect it would be so massively rejected. It hurt. It got scary. I had no words and spent two days on the verge of crying. 

This wasn’t quite a right-wing vs left-wing thing, but after the result was announced, a very familiar wave of entitlement and hate arose among the majority that didn’t lose (there are hardly any winners though). I’m not gonna go into the complexities of it all, but the mixture of ignorance (not reading what you’re voting for) and evil (plainly lying about what the proposal said to get others to reject it) did this process in.

The only comfort that Andrew and I could find in our somber breakfast the next morning was that we’re sheltered. Despite us not meeting the standard of life  we’d like and expect given our degrees, we remain privileged. We have resources to function daily, we have the color of our skin, we have our straight-passing (it pains me to say the latter because it’s not a privilege, but queer people are a go-to target when conservatism wins).

I kept going back to Brexit. Boy, do I have a knack for being born and/or living in countries that like to shoot themselves in the foot. We were immigrants in the UK when Brexit happened, but the results of the referendum didn’t change our material conditions (as opposed to, say, two Black girls we saw at our bus stop the day after the referendum, who were being mocked by two white men about the jobs they would be able to get from now on). We’d probably be feeling some of its repercussions by now if we’d stayed in the UK, as we’ll experience the consequences of Sunday’s elections here over time.

Also, the Queen’s death had me thinking about the UK. I lived the happiest days of my life there, but I don’t care for the monarchy. Save for Lady D, she was cool. I found it surreal to be living in a place with an actual queen and people with assorted titles. It’s all fun and games until you’re colonised. 

Lastly, on rather happier news: I have my own office now. A Spanish colleague from the PhD program returned to his country, and the director told me that I could take his office. I don’t believe it. I didn’t expect this at all. 

The office is in the Psych building, second floor, with all the PhD academic staff. I mean, I *am* part of that staff, but besides my boss (bless her forever), no one had given me any material proof that I belong in this uni. And my boss fought for a space for me here as much as she could, given that she and I are from different faculties. 

So I’m moving in tomorrow before someone else takes the office. Andrew and I went shopping yesterday for stuff to make myself comfortable there: a tiny garden in a glass vase, coffee, a rainbow flag for my desk, etc. It was a good day yesterday, we went shopping and we had brunch at a Colombian café, which is the closest place here to the flavors of my own country. Remember that now that we have a car we can run errands more freely. It feels good. 

It seems like the pandemic is over, but it isn’t! Keep wearing a mask and stay safe.

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