21
Just a simple dinner with people who matter.
A few days ago, I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m no longer a child or a youth as dictated by society’s standards. It was my first step into adulthood, a period of life that’s full of possibilities and excitement, but also one that’s plagued with responsibilities and decisions.
Without any form of warning or hint, the reality of turning 21 has slowly crept in on me over the past few months and finally, it dawned on me that I’m finally 21 now and has already lived about 25% of my total lifespan. It definitely feels a bit scary if we think about it this way. Before we know it, we would have become parents and reach the halfway mark of our lives. Time really doesn’t show any mercy.
It’s really so funny how we wanted to grow up as soon as possible when we were young, and how we want to become children or youths once again when we’re now adults. When we were young, we had both time and energy but no money. Now that we’re adults, we’ve both money (not sure for everyone) and energy but no time. When we grow old and become parents or grandparents, we’ll have both time and money but no energy. How great will it be if we can possibly have all 3! The only chance for that to happen is during our adult stage, when we can actually earn as much money as we can in the early part of our career, so that we’ll be able to have more time and money to spend in the later part. Alternatively, we can also make time for ourselves and stop and smell the beautiful roses. We must never take our health for granted. It gives us a freedom so huge such that when it’s suddenly stolen from us, our lives will simply crumble and will never be the same again. While we’re still young and full of energy, we should take the time to explore the world around us and revel in its wondrous beauty. It’ll be too late for that once illness strikes us.
Over the past few weeks, my friends have been telling me constantly about the importance of one’s 21st birthday and how significant and grand it should be. However, I just couldn’t feel the need for a luxurious party since I’ve never really been a fan of birthday parties ever since young. Hence, I decided that on my 21st birthday, it’ll just be a simple dinner with some friends who have once played a memorable and significant role in my life. Most importantly, they’re friends whom have shared lots of crazy laughter with me.
It was indeed a pleasant evening with all of them and even though the weather wasn’t cooperative at all, I’m very glad that they still managed to come and spent the evening with me. For that, I’ll like to express my deepest thanks and gratitude. It was definitely nostalgic and great to see people whom I haven’t seen for the past 2 years, and to be able to have fun talking and joking with them made it even more amazing. Even though we’re all leading different lives now, the memories that we once shared will always be the same and remain within us.
4 years and counting.
It has been a wonderful 4 years with this bunch of ‘gentlemen’. Even though I do hope that we’ll forever stay the same way, I know that that’s just something that’s quite impossible to achieve. As we enter this new phase of our lives, we’ll meet different people and have different experiences. We’ll be with our new friends and will have less time for our old ones. Slowly but steadily, the new friends will take over the space that’s reserved for the old ones in our hearts. I know that I sound really very pessimistic here, but I just can’t help but feel that way after experiencing the many differences that’s beginning to surface among us.
And I guess that’s all for my 21st birthday! Recently, I’ve been reading a book that’s a compilation of emails written by a cancer patient during the period when she underwent radiotherapy and after that. The title of the book is ‘A Joyful Song’ and the thing that I admire most about the author is that she was able to remain so positive and cheerful amidst the most trying period of her life. After reading it, it makes all the troubles (if they can even be called troubles) in my life seem so trivial and small. One lesson which I’ve learnt from the book is that no matter what problems we may face, there’ll always be a way out of the dark and long tunnel.
We often hear people say that we should live our lives with no regrets. That sounds fairly simple enough, but how many of us can actually achieve that? Recently, I bought a book that’s written by Bronnie Ware, the author of this amazing article. It’s called ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying’. Hopefully, this book will enlighten me and allow me to see the world in a whole new different perspective, one that will truly allow me to live my life with no regrets.
