I AM A GIRL WHO READS.

Dear Diary,

I know it's been five months since I last posted and I'm not going to apologize and make promises again because I know I won't be keeping them. Five months - there are lots of things I need to share like our new place, my birthday, my summer, and everything in between - too overwhelming now but I'm excited to blog about them soon. But at the moment, I'd like to share something that got my attention quickly and lingered in my mind 'til now. I happened to chance upon this post on Tumblr. Such a shame I only knew about the blog just tonight. Anyways, this particular doodle precisely describes the story of my life.

“The Never Lonely Lonely Girl”

Dinah used to always worry that she’d end up alone,

Because she struggled to abandon her comfort zone.

Surrounded by books is where she felt right at home,

Many weekend nights spent pouring over a new tome.

And while she has friends, she’s no one’s one and only

Despite no significant other, she never feels lonely.

Dinah felt she must be strange, must be mad as a hatter

But eventually she realized, “what the hell does it matter?”

So she loves books! And how can that be wrong?

Her literary tastes are varied, her comprehension strong.

Humans are well and good, but they will come and go.

A new book, however, is always a loyal n’ loving bedfellow.

Alone but not lonely, as books stay through the ages

If Dinah wants company, she just turns the pages.

by David Michael Chandler

See? I told you. It's so me. Dinah is me. I've been reading books since I started to learn how to read. It's my pleasure and happiness. I have a wide range of book collection that I was able to accumulate through the years, and I enjoy discussing about them with my best friends who are also voracious readers like myself. Books are part of my childhood, teenage, and early adult life. Even now with my very hectic school and work schedule, I'd still squeeze in some time to read. I need it to balance my life. Reading allows me to escape my world and enter to their world. It stimulates my imagination and, for me, it's healthy and beneficial. I oftentimes don't care about the craziness of the world - partying, dating, and whatever - So what? Just as long as I have a good book to read. <3 div="div">

PS Currently pending to be read: Perks of Being a WallFlower by Stephen Chbosky and The Faults in our Stars by John Green. Fingers crossed I find time for them, lovelies.

Love,
Epy

Death Cab For Cutie Manila Concert

March 05, 2012

As what I've mentioned in my last post, I went to DCFC's concert here in Manila in NBC Tent in BGC, Taguig. It was my first time to watch a concert with my high school best friends so you can tell I was really pumped up for it. Also, I'd like to hear DCFC sing one of my favorite songs in the world--I Will Follow You.

So here are the photos from that memorable night. They are all from Joanna's camera but I post-processed them using pixlr.com.

:D

A little bit of catching up to do: DCFC Concert and RareJob.

Dear Diary,

I'm sorry I've been away for too long. I know I promised to keep you posted always but my schedule at the moment won't allow me. My last post was about my first day in school, so we'll continue with that. I started with my online classes in UP about Caring for the Child with Special Needs last February27 and we're on the second week now. Our first module was about the theories on human growth and development although the module only discussed about Erik Erikson's theory. We were given an assignment where we would discuss one of the many theories and apply it to the Filipino culture. I tackled Lawrence Kohlberg's theory which is called Stages of Moral Development. We were only told to do a short paper but I did a 3-page assignment. Well, I guess you can still call it a short paper. It was pretty hard thing to do since I was so overwhelmed by the thought of me studying again, and the difficulty of the first assignment. I want to excel in this course so I was really pressuring myself to be the best I can be. It took me about 4to5 days to study the modules and think of what theory to discuss. Another snag to my goal was...I passed the paper past the due date. It was such a shameful, irresponsible thing to mistakenly assume that the deadline is on March5 11:59pm instead of the correct one which is on March5 12:00am. Ugh! I am the biggest idiot. Anyways, I explained myself to my professor and I hope she considers my excuse. I haven't heard from her yet. No reply to my e-mail, but she went online to post this week's modules and activities. Ugh.

On to a lighter note, on the evening of March5, I had the privilege to watch the concert of one of the best bands (in my book) in the world--The Death Cab For Cutie. I was with my two hipster lovers, Joanna and Virginia. It was our first time to watch a concert together so it was pretty special. The concert started around 8:40pm, as usual late than the announced 8:00pm start. I was undoubtedly amazed by how amazing they were. Seriously! I can't think of any flaw to say about their band. Every one in the band was great. Plus, Ben Gibbard was extremely fit and attractive in person. I didn't expect it, really, since he always look awkward and unattractive in photos. My friend Joanna was the one who took photos and videos but unfortunately she hasn't uploaded them yet since she doesn't have internet access at her home at the moment. So, I'll just share some of the photos I took after coming home from the concert. Brace yourself for some narcissism. 

One of the reasons why my schedule is tight lately is my online tutoring classes for the Japanese with RareJob. I've started last March6 and the schedule I plotted for this week and next week is from 5pm-8pm and 10pm-12mn. You can imagine how my day goes, how tight it is that what I can do is to look at my drafts folder on Tumblr to keep it alive by posting an average of two a day. And I rarely get to tweet also, but it's a good thing, though. The thing that I put least attention to is you, my dearest diary. I hope this round-up of my activities for the past week would suffice my absence.

Love,

Epy

Today's my first day in school.

The thick modules and the book I'll be studying for the next 12 weeks as we tackle basics about
Caring for Children with Special Needs in UP Online University.

Dear Diary,

I said in my previous post that I'll be updating you with everything that has happened to me for the past three years that you've missed, but I think it's not a good idea. It means a lot of hard work transferring everything from Tumblr to here. I figured there's a link to my Tumblr blog so what's the use? I'm sorry, I'm extremely lazy lately. So, I decided to just blog about what's happening in my life now.

Yes, today's my first day in school! Well, sort of. It's actually in University of the Philippines Online University, and I'm taking up a 12-week course of Caring for the Child with Special Needs. So, my classroom's virtual, and I get to talk and discuss with my adviser, professors, and classmates online only. Innit interesting and fun? I'd get to learn about my course in the comforts of my bedroom! How lovely! It has been a long time, though, since I graduated in college and I sure hope my mind's still working perfectly for academics. Ha-ha!

Earlier, I got the chance to know my adviser through UPOU's MyPortal. Her name's Aya, and she's an Occupational Therapist in New York. Aaahhh! Just what I imagine myself to be a year from now! Of course, it's quite impossible because Occupational Therapy is a four-year course with a licensure exam...but, maybe an OT Assistant would do? Ha-ha. Nah, I want to be a pre-school teacher! I don't know what's gonna happen in the near future yet but here's the introduction I made in our class' forum page.

Good day Teacher Aya and classmates,

I am April Jan Stephanie R. Ragragio, and I'm twenty-two years old. I have a degree in BS Major in Psychology which I finished last April 2010 in Aquinas University of Legazpi. Shortly after graduation, my family went back here in Manila after my Mum's contract with USAID ended. I worked in a BPO company as a Customer Service Consultant for Telstra Wireline, an Australian telecom account. It wasn't really the job I wanted but it was what most of my friends do. You could say I got into peer pressure. I would've wanted to work as an HR staff but I figured its hiring process takes a long time plus the wage isn't as high as the starting salary in a BPO company. After that, I had a year-long stint in a multi-level marketing company called Nu Skin Enterprises. And lately, I've found a more comfortable job which pays quite a good sum and it's as a home-based online English teacher for the Japanese. It allows me to have control over my schedule so I thought why not take an online course like this to broaden my knowledge to a field I'm interested in.

My main motivation in taking this course is actually to gain knowledge about it. I plan to work abroad (maybe in Singapore, Canada, US or UK) to be a pre-school teacher for normal children or children with special needs. I sure hope that my degree in Psychology would be of help. I am aware that this is not a course in SPED or Caregiving but I know it will help me in many ways possible. And if I take a formal course of it afterwards, at least I have an idea about what it is through this course. My aunt who's in Portugal told me her friend took this up, and now works in the USA. Also, I have a cousin who is so dear to me who has a Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He's only 6 years old. He was diagnosed last year when we brought him to NCH because we noticed his legs are slowly getting weaker. He lost his mother when he was only 3 years old so we took care of him ever since. I want to be the best Ate for him when he's starting to feel his illness. So, I really hope to gain as much knowledge as I can from this course.

I expect this class to be very informative with our adviser's guidance and classmates' inputs and opinions as we tackle everything in this course. I am looking forward to be spending the next 12 weeks sharing ideas with all of you.

All the best!

I'm extremely excited to start with our discussion and I hope I do good and have impressive grades!


Love,
Epy

I'm back after THREE LONG YEARS!!!

Dearest my blogspot blog which was once named "eypsvodkamudshake",

I am honestly quite not sure about the name I once named you. After three years, I almost puked at the sight of it that I instantly deleted it and put on a new one. I'm sorry for being MIA for three years. I was enticed by another blog site called Tumblr and found it so much fun. But, don't worry, I'm back now. It was a long process to have you again. You see, I forgot your password, and then I hated your theme. So, I have to edit out a lot of things to get to what you look now which fits my 22 year-old self's taste. I had to delete my two older posts back in 2009 because they're just too embarrassing. (Really, self? You had to blog about your failed skinny loves before? *facepalm*)

Anyways, Tumblr was and still is so much fun. It's just that I missed having a legit blog where I can share anything and everything about me without any reblogged photos, videos, and whatnots from other Tumblr blogs. I think, you are more personal. With that being said, I'm planning on catching up for lost times. I'm going to post everything that happened to me for the past three years!!! (Uh, yeah, I don't know how I can do that and how long it will take me to get it done. Oh my.) But, that's my plan.

I'm naming you now Forever Young. That's my blog's name in Tumblr, too. Look-> http://apriljanstephanie.tumblr.com! I want to have the same things on both my blogs, so there. I'll be posting everything from what I'm busy with to things that interest me such as concerts, movies, basketball and football games, indie bands, books, and travelling.

Another thing, I plan that with every post, I'll be starting with Dear Diary because that's what you are to me -- my diary. I kept diaries when I was still a kid and I still have them with me. I started every post with Dear Diary and I find it so cute. I know it's too common but idgaf, and I know that there's a big difference between then and now. Back then, no one reads my diary. I had it locked so even my Mum can't read it. Now, everyone can read what I write on here. And it's okay. At this day and age when everyone has a blog, it's understandable and acceptable that everything can be seen and read. Even I peek at some other's lives through their blogs. So it's completely fine. And imagine, 30 or 40 years from now, when I Google myself and see this page, at least I can reminisce parts of my life through you, My Dear Diary.

I'm glad to be back. 

Love,

Epy