About Me
Full warning every description of myself below might make you label me as a special snowflake if you're an ass lol
Name: James Christopher Joaquin Sy-Go
Nicknames: James, Chris, Patron (online only call me Patron irl and you die)
Residence: Manila, Philippines
Ethnicity: Filipino-Chinese (no recent non-Han ancestry)
Languages: English, Tagalog, conversational Hokkien + estudio español para mi curso
Occupation: Student (Ateneo de Manila '23, AB English Lit, Minor in Spanish)
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Neurotype: Diagnosed ADHD + hyperlexia, partially diagnosed autism
Gender: Nonbinary, I prefer to present as male because of dysphoria but I definitely do not consider myself as only a trans man
Sexuality: Queer (I think I'm attracted to most genders but I can't really think of a label lol)
Pronouns: He/Him and They/Them
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Religion: Christian (Episcopalian)
Political Affiliation: Almost Marxist-Leninist but not quite, definitely have some problems with ML Twitter but let's not get into that
Academic Interests: Literature and literary theory, linguistics, theology and religious studies, history, cultural geography, leftist, queer and post-col politics, anthropology, mythology and folklore, media studies
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Casual Interests: Pokemon, popular music, reading contemporary fiction, writing
Favourite Authors: C.S Lewis, Lemony Snicket, Arthur Conan Doyle, Neil Gaiman
Favourite Artists: David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Taylor Swift, Rina Sawayama, Sufjan Stevens, The Eraserheads, George Harrison, Prince
Favourite Pokemon: Phanpy, Milotic, Sylveon, Chandelure, Serperior, Delphox, Rowlet, Piplup
Languages I Want To Learn: Mandarin, Naga Bikolano, Aklanese, Bahasa Indonesian and Malay, Portuguese, Welsh, Irish, Latin, Greek, German, Italian, Hindi, Arabic (I will probably only get to learn the first half lol)
Dream Job: Professor/Writer
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Other Fun Facts:
~ Breakdown of my trans name: James is from Jesus' brother in the Bible (who wrote the book named after him), Christopher is from my old deadname, Joaquin is from Nick Joaquin, Sy-Go is a variation on my family surnames
~ I have family in Bicol and Aklan which is why I want to learn languages from there; my great-uncle taught in Ateneo de Naga and XU and used to be the academic director in the former before he quit the priesthood
~ My family comes from Southern Fujian, I'm a third-gen immigrant on my dad's side but a much older one on my mom's side
~ I'm pretty sure I have some distant Hui and thus Persian ancestry especially since I don't look fully Chinese but I don't consider myself anything but Han racially even though being Filipino is really important to me culturally
~ My faith is genuinely very important to me and, yes, I am able to reconcile it with my leftism and my queerness; that being said I am definitely not going to engage in religious debates with everyone lol. My spirituality is an odd mix of some inspiration taken from Eastern Christianity combined with liberation theology and a particular interest in Scripture as a literary text that makes me retain a Protestant flare
~ I'm probably going to go to UP and take either English Studies, Philippine Literature in English, or Hispanic Literature for grad school; some areas of literary theory that fascinate me: the overlap and relationship between myth, religion and literature, the creation of alternative histories in literature, queer theory, disability theory, feminism, and post-colonialism
~ I'd describe my taste in music as primarily focused on singer-songwriters with some exceptions, I'm particularly affictionate to art pop and random retro music (I also mod the r/Popheads Discord)
~ My greatest strengths are my resilience, my fondness of learning, and my strong sense of morality; my worst weaknesses are my irritability, my impulsivity, and various other side-effects of past trauma. My most double-edged personality trait is my ambition and my dilligence because I tend to push myself to the limit too much especially considering I'm neurodivergent lol
~ I was an extremely mediocre person until 2018 because of undiagnosed issues and trauma and insecurities so if you consider me your friend (whether in real life or online) I honestly treasure you so much because you're probably an important part of how far I've gone since then and how much I'm still growing
~ I accepted my gender identity and my faith back in August 2017 after two or three years of grappling with both and that explains why I've improved a lot since then
~ If I do anything wrong or make you feel bad please tell me I try to be a good person but I fall short sometimes
~ Last, but not the least: Speak Now is my favourite album of all time please stan it ty