Time is precious and it's slipping away.
Do you ever just wonder out of the blue sometimes that time passes so fast, and slips away like sad in your palm? Do you ever just stop to think that you're at this transitional phase in your life where things aren't the way they used to be? If you're in the last years of your adolescence like me, you probably have. A lot.
I was just chatting with a couple of my secondary school friends on MSN Messenger just now. And it just struck me hard that as much as we all treasured one another and made an effor to constantly keep in touch, which requires a significant amount of tenacity, that we've pretty much gone our own paths and are really leading our own lives. We have all really moved on from our secondary school days.
It is great that we've moved on with our lives. Everyone has to, but not everyone does. I'm extremely proud of my friends, especially my secondary school bunch, to know that now they all have some kind of vision in their life to work towards. All have their aspirations, as different as they may be, but my friends and I do have a dream and we're aggressively pursuing it. As much as we've moved on with our lives, everytime we meet up, I think everyone can see with incandenscent clarity the effervescent joy in my countenance, because those are friends in one of the most crucial and brutial growing up phases in my life, and now we've all together in the biggest transitional phase in our lives. We're all hitting 20 this year.
Television programmes like Friends like to fetishize the life of the 20-something, portraying it as a life full of freedom, independence, companionship, and excitement and opportunity, portraying the life of the 20-something as something to be desired and to be lived out with pure relish. However my favourite programme, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a lot more real, and it has always been more interested in capturing the melancholy and pain of adulthood. The stress and pain of living your life away from the shelter of your parents, entering into a strange foreign land where you're there to fend for yourself, where there would be increasingly common tendencies to feel lonely and so small in this world. Buffy The Vampire Slayer really captures the pain of adulthood so adeptly, which stems from the ever increasing responsibilities and stress of adult life, and it shows how its characters deal with it by disengaging from the society by indulging in magic, or by getting into sexually exploitative relationships, or just by disassociating with the whole society in general.
Fortunately, I believe that life of the 20-something isn't that bleak. It really is a mixture of how both shows portray it to be. Like Friends, I do agree that life of the young adult brings with it a sense of opportunity and excitement, because it really is the pivotal point in our life where we start pursuing with courage our dreams, and where we are bold enough to give everything a shot. Freedom and independence are the 2 defining marks of 20-something life.
Yet, as much an optimist as I am, I can't help but ruminate on the bleakness of adult life.
The responsibilities. Supporting our parents. Not depending on your parents. Planning for your marriage. Planning for your family. Relationship commitments. Which leads to marriage commitments. And then family commitments. The bills. What you're going to make out of your life. What you're here on earth for. Seeing your friends move on with their lives you feel like you're a million miles away from them. The drudgery of everyday life, especially if you're caught in a super boring, crappy job. ( like my vocation in camp right now.) Your bosses. The prospect of facing crucial, trying moments of your life all by yourself. I shiver with fright sometimes. But do I have a choice? I have to face these things with courage, strength, and definitely with faith.
I think adulthood is fraught with problems and trials and obstacles. Burdens in general. As much as I believe in ultimate triumph in the end, a heart heavy with burden would probably be a prominent aspect of a 20-something adult.
So I think that I had my first true taste of adulthood when I was in kindergarten. I remember being so worried and scared now that I'm going school, without my mother and father by my side. Now I'm going to school with these 20 something other kids, and mum and daddy not there to keep me safe. They say when you're burdened, you feel heavier than usual.
That day, as I dragged my feet to school, I felt my body weighing me down, and I was almost twice as heavy as usual.
I was just chatting with a couple of my secondary school friends on MSN Messenger just now. And it just struck me hard that as much as we all treasured one another and made an effor to constantly keep in touch, which requires a significant amount of tenacity, that we've pretty much gone our own paths and are really leading our own lives. We have all really moved on from our secondary school days.
It is great that we've moved on with our lives. Everyone has to, but not everyone does. I'm extremely proud of my friends, especially my secondary school bunch, to know that now they all have some kind of vision in their life to work towards. All have their aspirations, as different as they may be, but my friends and I do have a dream and we're aggressively pursuing it. As much as we've moved on with our lives, everytime we meet up, I think everyone can see with incandenscent clarity the effervescent joy in my countenance, because those are friends in one of the most crucial and brutial growing up phases in my life, and now we've all together in the biggest transitional phase in our lives. We're all hitting 20 this year.
Television programmes like Friends like to fetishize the life of the 20-something, portraying it as a life full of freedom, independence, companionship, and excitement and opportunity, portraying the life of the 20-something as something to be desired and to be lived out with pure relish. However my favourite programme, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a lot more real, and it has always been more interested in capturing the melancholy and pain of adulthood. The stress and pain of living your life away from the shelter of your parents, entering into a strange foreign land where you're there to fend for yourself, where there would be increasingly common tendencies to feel lonely and so small in this world. Buffy The Vampire Slayer really captures the pain of adulthood so adeptly, which stems from the ever increasing responsibilities and stress of adult life, and it shows how its characters deal with it by disengaging from the society by indulging in magic, or by getting into sexually exploitative relationships, or just by disassociating with the whole society in general.
Fortunately, I believe that life of the 20-something isn't that bleak. It really is a mixture of how both shows portray it to be. Like Friends, I do agree that life of the young adult brings with it a sense of opportunity and excitement, because it really is the pivotal point in our life where we start pursuing with courage our dreams, and where we are bold enough to give everything a shot. Freedom and independence are the 2 defining marks of 20-something life.
Yet, as much an optimist as I am, I can't help but ruminate on the bleakness of adult life.
The responsibilities. Supporting our parents. Not depending on your parents. Planning for your marriage. Planning for your family. Relationship commitments. Which leads to marriage commitments. And then family commitments. The bills. What you're going to make out of your life. What you're here on earth for. Seeing your friends move on with their lives you feel like you're a million miles away from them. The drudgery of everyday life, especially if you're caught in a super boring, crappy job. ( like my vocation in camp right now.) Your bosses. The prospect of facing crucial, trying moments of your life all by yourself. I shiver with fright sometimes. But do I have a choice? I have to face these things with courage, strength, and definitely with faith.
I think adulthood is fraught with problems and trials and obstacles. Burdens in general. As much as I believe in ultimate triumph in the end, a heart heavy with burden would probably be a prominent aspect of a 20-something adult.
So I think that I had my first true taste of adulthood when I was in kindergarten. I remember being so worried and scared now that I'm going school, without my mother and father by my side. Now I'm going to school with these 20 something other kids, and mum and daddy not there to keep me safe. They say when you're burdened, you feel heavier than usual.
That day, as I dragged my feet to school, I felt my body weighing me down, and I was almost twice as heavy as usual.
