Reading addiction

If someone asked me if I have an addiction, I’d say yes.

Reading.

The first time I got addicted to reading was when I was in third grade. I remember being fascinated when we had our tour inside the library. And I can still remember the first book that paved the way to my relationship with countless others. It was a Sherlock Holmes book. His adventures had been my favorite then and it’s still my favorite now. I LOVE YOU, SHERLOCK! ❤

Since that first book, I always went back to the library to borrow more and for a third grader, I didn’t realize that what I was reading was a bit complex for my age. I was into Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shakespeare and so many more other classical authors. When I grew older, my readings become more diverse. With another book finished, there were still thousands of others waiting for me to discover.

I really love reading. I can go on for days not doing anything else but just read books or e-books. Of course I prefer real books to e-books but the latter is way cheaper than the former and so I have no choice. I have to wait for book sales or bookstores selling pre-loved books so as to buy the books I want at a cheaper price.

Books I got at the 35th Manila International Book Fair 🙂

Bought all these for only 300php at the National bookstore Warehouse Sale! 🙂

 I have this dream that one day, I’ll have my own library and I’ll buy all the books that I’ve already read before from libraries, e-books or from friends who were kind enough to let me borrow what they already had. But I’m still a long way from there. So far, I only have a little more than 50 books though I’ve probably read thousands of books from libraries, e-books, and from friends. It’s a sad and depressing thought actually. I often torture myself, going to bookstores and looking at books, reading their back covers then going out of the place empty handed. Still, I kept on coming back.

I don’t know why I like to read. Maybe my life isn’t as adventurous or exciting as those in books and I crave that? Or maybe I get a high from imagining the things I’ve read the same way drug addicts get high from whatever it is they take?

Like any other vice, there’s a downside to getting addicted to reading. I often fail to do the other important things I have to do because I prioritize reading a book/e-book I’ve come across. It makes me unproductive, just sitting or lying down reading instead of say, doing that Chemistry problem set due tomorrow, or that manuscript that needs revision and countless more others.

Despite knowing this… *singing ala Miley Cyrus in her song We Can’t Stop*

I can’t stop. No, I won’t stooop. 😛

Officially Unemployed!

Every time I try to put into writing all these thoughts in my head, I seem to find myself at a loss of words. I kept telling myself I was too busy to spend just enough time to sit down and write whatever it was I was feeling at the moment. While I was on hiatus, one important life event happened to me (haha! Too much Facebook ugh)

I’m officially unemployed!

Yeppp. Yours truly is a proud graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry under her belt! 😀

I could still remember that day. I had to pass my thesis manuscript with the acceptance sheet and I was going crazy about the possibility that I might not be able to submit it on time what with the deadline being that day. I already had finished my thesis defense daysss before and my manuscript as well but what made everything hard was making the important people to sign my acceptance sheet. When I finally was able to complete the required signatures, it was LITERALLY a few minutes before the deadline which was 5PM. I think I submitted it around 4:58PM or something. NO KIDDING. It made me so damn nervous. Thinking that all the hard work I did during the semester would be in vain if the manuscript was  not submitted on time.

I kept thinking about Murphy’s Law at that moment. I was damn close and what can go wrong might really go wrong then and there. Luckily, I survived the ordeal.

It felt so surreal. In fact, I didn’t feel like I’ve really graduated then and there. I don’t know. I mean, that was it? I guess I kind of expected something grand to happen. Like maybe someone throwing confetti and a banner would show up that said, “Congratulations! You’ve finally graduated!”

I was so paranoid I had asked the college secretary to double check my records so as to confirm that I have really completed the required units for my degree. We never really know, I mean, I could have missed taking one more PE subject or had an incomplete or I’ve failed a subject I thought I passed. I didn’t stop at that, I also checked my grades and subjects online AND went back to the College Secretary’s office and requested for a Certificate of Graduation (since I can’t get my diploma until I’m cleared from the university). I have developed this habit of looking at my certificate just to make sure that it’s all real. They won’t give me that certificate if it wasn’t true, right?

I was that paranoid. And I guess, it was just hard to believe. After all these years, finally! I did it. You know that feeling you get when you worked so hard for something, waited for such a long time to achieve a certain goal that when you’ve already succeeded in obtaining that goal, you just… You just can’t believe it. You’re happy, sure.

But dreaming about it, working your way through is different from finally being there.

What I’m currently waiting for now is my graduation which will be this April. I’m what you’d call a first semester graduate so I had to wait until after the 2nd semester is over for me to have that graduation march.

NEXT GOAL: PASS THE CHEMIST LICENSURE EXAM!