Happy Eid everyone!
The best thing about Eid in Malaysia is that it's never too late to say that, it spans a whole month for all we know. My experience with Eid abroad was somewhat different, it usually lasts to a week max. It goes to show that how Malaysians love celebration so much.
I had just arrived in KL from my hometown yesterday. I'm not really a family person, so it's really hard for me to say whether I had a lovely time at home or not. To be honest, given the chance, I would be fine celebrating Eid anywhere else really. But as all festivals and celebration go, family gatherings are somewhat customary.
I will also be starting my new job today, which I have been looking forward in a few weeks now. I hadn't been updating much (obviously), but this will be my second job. I quit my first job because I couldn't stand my boss, who is a fool. I thought I could brush that off and focused on what I do, but lets be real, who can stand a fool? It's too much drama to go into about it now so I would just let that period of my life past. But I was good at my job, within two weeks of working I was already been promoted and received a raise. While the money and position was good, it wasn't enough to make me compromise my intelligence and patience.
That might explain why I was on a hiatus for a while. Adapting to working life took a lot of my time. Suddenly you are reliable for every single minute details of your life - no more parents supporting you, no more student loan to feed your wanderlust, no more free time to waste on binge watching and sleeping. It was really a phase that I had to carefully manage, for if I don't quickly grow into it, I'll be drowned and overwhelm with all these new responsibilities. And they say going to uni make you learn about independence, try working a full time job, uni life seems like a honeymoon then.
I was also adamant that I would always be myself when I entered the workforce, which translates to me being out and proud of my sexuality. I wasn't really surprised to see that in the workplace homophobia, sexism and racism were still very much apparent. You get guys making stupid comments about girls, Malays talking trash about foreigners, and closed minded people warned you of the dangers of the gays. Hah, they better be because gurll I slayyyyyyy!
With all that being said though, there are also a lot of people who are open and accepting. Needless to say I made great friends with these people and glad that I was given the chance to work with them. To put this in a bigger picture, you have people who are for and against the idea of equality, tolerance and acceptance. Don't be discouraged if you find that you're surrounded with the conservatives because liberals do exist, and there are a lot of us too. This is important to show that eventhough Malaysia is still lacking in the progress of LGBT rights, that doesn't mean there is NO progress at all. We still have a lot to do, to educate the people about equality, and to ensure that we can exist in the same manner as other human beings without being discriminated.
Moving forward, I will be writing here again (yeay!). To be fair, I couldn't write much previously because I was exhausted with my job as a writer. So I had focused most of my writings for my job and mentally it's exhausting to have different projects in one go. But I'm planning to work on various things, it's just the adapting period again. So today in the spirit of starting a new job, also as a writer and editor, I will try to put some times in this blog as well, documenting the life of a gay man in Malaysia, personal stories and thoughts, as well as connecting with the LGBTQ+ community here.
I will see you lots shortly then yeah :)
