The third week of December, now that’s one heck of a week.
Besides the fact that I’ve made the decision to enroll myself in the Bachelor of Communications (Media Studies) course at HELP University after taking a trip to Falcon’s Education Fair at PWTC on Sunday; and that together with HuiYi, I’ve helped Eelaine to bake cookies at her place for the first time in my life on Monday; and that I went for my first ever job interview on Wednesday and was hired as a personal assistant; and that Thursday was my first day of work of my entire life; the third week of December only truly became awesome on Friday… because I finally turned 18. (:
Ok, yes, 18 is just a number. I mean, even though I can legally drink now, it doesn’t matter to me because I don’t like the taste of alcohol anyways. I can finally watch those 18 rated movies, but I’ve already been watching them since forever. I still remember watching that awesomely violent movie, 300, when I was in Form 1. So… why is turning 18 so special?
If you know me, then you would know that if I could, I would love to remain 17 forever. I love using the, “Don’t blame me, I’m only 17, it’s okay if I don’t know how to do that!” excuse. Or taking a jab at people by saying, “Oh God, I’m not even 18 yet and I’m acting more mature than you already.” It’s kinda sad that I won’t be able to say those things any more!
A friend told me, “Adulthood? Not yet lah. Still got three more years.” True. We are only legally adults when we’re 21, cause that’s when we can finally vote in elections and things like that. But, 18 is still a milestone. I mean, there’s a reason why you can finally open a bank account of your own, right? And there’s also a reason why the parental consent form is no longer needed in college for those who are 18 and above. To me, turning 18 means leaving my teenage years behind, and saying hello to adulthood, it feels that way even more especially now that I am working.
And I’m really glad that I got to celebrate my 18th birthday with people I care for. Ying Ying, Hui Yi, Pei She, Grace, Shean Yen, Yi He, Kyle, Daniel, Divo and Shivany. I distinctly told Ying Ying, Hui Yi, and Pei She that I didn’t want a surprise for my birthday, I just wanted to spend a nice and quiet time with them, but they just wouldn’t listen. Pfft. I was in a really pissy and grumpy mood for a birthday girl when the others surprised me at Starbucks after we had a picnic at the KLCC park. It wasn’t that I didn’t want them there. I do, I really do. It’s just that I wanted everyone, and I mean, EVERYONE to have a good time, and not just me.
When the college social circle and high school social circle collide, nothing good can come out of it. We were sitting at Chili’s, and I felt bad because if I were to talk to my college friends, I would have to ignore my high school friends, and vice versa. The fact that I was seated at the far end of the table makes it even harder for me to socialize with everyone. I wanted everyone to feel included, but that was impossible to happen. I felt even worse because Grace was alone among the 5s6 gang after Shean Yen left early; Daniel’s birthday was 2 days before mine and I didn’t get to celebrate with him; Shivany had, and still has high fever and yet she had to force herself out of bed for me; as much as I like Kyle, I didn’t really keep in touch with him much throughout the year, which made me really guilty that he still cared enough to come.
You can think of it in two different ways. One, the noble reason: I want to have time for all of my friends, like, spend a whole day with them, and not split myself into different parts and not giving my full attention to everyone. Or second, the selfish reason: Even though I really wanted to celebrate my birthday with everyone, I wanted to be happy on my birthday instead of feeling guilty about me being a really bad friend while my friends are so nice to me. Ohhh, puh-lease, don’t look at me that way, you know what I’m talking about. I’m sure you have had that feeling before, too.
But still, no matter what, it was one of the best birthday celebrations I’ve had. Really. And I appreciate what my friends have done for me. And on that note, I shall go back to work now. Bye bye.
Aha, you must know this comment is coming.
I’m sorry to hear that Shivany was ill, and I do feel bad that we didn’t make more effort to socialise with your college friends but for the record, Friday was one of my best day-outs this month. My point is, you needn’t feel guilty! We were all too happy to be there.