March 1st- Long Needed Personal Update
Greetings everyone! It has been a long while since I had last written a blog post. I just wanted to give an update regarding some events going on at the moment. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. We hope that this pandemic will end soon so we can travel back to the USA.
The primary reason why I have gone dark on my blog and haven’t replied to a lot of you or posted online a lot these last few months is because I have been working on completing my master’s degree dissertation. This was one of the most challenging things I have ever completed, mostly because unlike my college days, I’m a full time teacher and now I’m a full time father. If you have a desire to further your education, it might be beneficial finishing those things prior to marriage, just my personal opinion. But I am very thankful for my wife, Elizabeth, who was very supportive of this entire process. I just wish Noah could have understood what I’ve been doing these last two and a half years.
I completed my dissertation a couple of weeks ago and now we are just waiting for the results. I spent countless hours and days on this research project. My only prayer is that I passed! My research question related to “How does anti-Asian language influence the development of the Asian identity in North America”; due to recent events and situations we’ve encountered, I was inspired to choose this particular research topic. I wanted a relevant research topic and this topic is of personal interest of mine given the background of my family. I thought that I could learn or gain insight concerning experiences they might have eventually.
It is nice being back in Guangzhou, but it is surreal being back at my old school of Xiangxian. I feel as if Shawan was left in time and I was the only one that moved on. It’s kind of a difficulty feeling to express I guess, hopefully you guys can relate. We love Guangdong and now that I have finished some things, I want to get back to learning Cantonese.
At the moment, we have some big decisions we are making. They are still at the early stages, so we think it might be best to wait to announce them. Life is definitely slower than before, but I still have a lot of additional projects or events that are happening. Our second son will arrive late May or early June, so we are really excited about that. We have even decided on a name already, but I’ll announce that as a surprise when he comes! Then I am currently working on a teaching training course and two courses I need in order to keep my teaching license from British Columbia Canada. I worked really hard to obtain a conditional license and I want to be able to convert it to a non-expiring professional license by completing these two classes. One class I completely agree with them asking me to complete, a Canadian history course, while the other course I’m not in agreement with the education bureau in BC to complete. They told me that I needed to complete an English literature course, but because they asked me to complete it, I’m just going to finish it up before our second little one arrives. Thankfully, a majority of the additional courses I needed were marked as completed with my masters degree.
As always, please continue to pray for my family in the USA, our family here, American Chinese relations and that the church in China will continue to grow! Thank you all again for your friendship and love/ prayers. God bless you all and I cannot wait to announce some other big things in the near future.
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God bless you and your loved ones. You have worked very hard to achieve your goals.
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Thank you Mrs. Bonilla!!!!! God has helped me every step of the way!
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