Backstory meme

I mean, I said some of this stuff in a post not all that long ago, but … it’s a meme now so I get to say it again, right? (seen here and there, most recently via ~silveredeye)

1. First Name:

One that very few people have, especially in this part of the country, so obviously I’m not sharing it. I never really felt like my name was “me”, but I’ve come to like it more recently because a. it’s from my home culture, which is very important to me, and b. it reveals absolutely nothing about any gender I may or may not be in possession of.

2. Age:

28. I will never tell anyone when my birthday is unless I absolutely have to, but I don’t mind people online knowing my age as, like, an integer.

3. Location:

Northern Ireland 💖

4. Occupation:

University lecturer (I believe this is what the merricans would call a “tenure-track assistant professor”).

5. Significant Other:

~lissajous, who is currently attempting to learn how to ceilidh dance from a YouTube video.

6. Kids:

An emphatic no.

7. Siblings:

None, and my partner doesn’t have any either. Tbh the thought of having that kind of close relationship with someone from early childhood onwards is kind of baffling to me.

8. Pets:

None. We had a few when I was growing up, but it’s not a path I can see us taking in the immediate future. I just enjoy interacting with random cats I come across in the neighbourhood, and that fulfils my need to touch a soft thing without any of the emotional commitment.

9. List the 3 biggest things going on in your life:

Work (mostly article revisions and my “how to be a lecturer” assignment over the next couple of weeks); trying very unsuccessfully to buy a house; practising the piano before I play it at a friend’s wedding on Friday.

10. Where and for what did you go to school?

An ancient university [this is the actual legit term I’m sorry] to study X and Y, then a plate-glass university where I did a master’s in Y, then a red brick university where my PhD was nominally in X but in fact very much not about X at all and much more about Y but in fact mostly about Z. Now I work in a department of X specialising in Y and wondering whether I will ever be able to sneak Z into the curriculum.

11. Parents:

Both my partner and I have parents who are unusually old for people of our age. […]

12. Who are some of your closest friends?

I’ve never really had many close friends, but beyond the boy, I would say the closest friends I have are the two members of my PhD cohort who are still in NI and whom I meet up with occasionally, and the friend whose wedding I’m going to on Friday, who doesn’t live nearby but has somehow managed to maintain relations with someone as socially deficient as I am for nearly twenty years now.