Sometime last month, my friend invited a few of her friends to an intimate homemade lunch to celebrate her birthday. After stuffing our faces full of delicious tilapia and chicken and other delights, we somehow got to talking about the differences between the youth and us, people in their thirties.
“My niece is always posting about love,” one pointed out, her expression that of someone who is internally rolling her eyes. “Like about how her ideal man is someone who pulls out a seat for her, or opens doors, blah blah blah. Honey, no such man exists.”
We all laughed.
“It’s so funny how at their age, their whole world revolves around love,” she pointed out. “They don’t realise that there is more to life than romance.”
“I know!” another one agreed energetically. “I have a nephew whose girlfriend is so in love with him that she is thinking of following him to Manila to study even though her life is clearly in her hometown, where her family has a lot of businesses. She asked advice from me once, and I told her not to limit herself to him, that she should continue to grow and pursue her dreams, not give them up to follow his. I mean she’s just a teenager for Pete’s sake! She has her whole life ahead of her!”
Everyone nodded their assent. “But isn’t it funny how we used to be just like that? If I could go back in time, I’d bop myself on the head for being so lame,” I realised.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Recently I got rehired by this company which I used to work for. During the interview, they asked me, ‘if we asked your former colleagues about you, do you think they would give good testimonials?’ I told them, ‘I think it wouldn’t be fair to compare me to the girl I was seven years ago. I mean that girl was in her mid-twenties and had a lot of iffy work ethics. I have changed a lot since then. I am not that girl anymore.'”
Boom. Epiphany right there.
What she said encompasses what I’ve been telling my friend at work lately, too. We were talking about how the kids reporting to her are so impatient, constantly complaining about everything and threatening to resign. “They don’t realise that they are being so petty!” she wailed. “They are only thinking about themselves!”
“Well you know how the youth are,” I replied. “You were like them before, weren’t you? Remember how you resigned because your boss asked you to photocopy something and you thought it was beneath you?”
Ahh… youth. I can’t tell you how many cringe-worthy moments I had in my day.
On most #throwbackthursdays I see her, the girl who is a lot fresher and prettier and thinner than me, and I miss her and wish I could be her again.
But then I remember how ignorant and lazy and narrow-minded she was, and I think to myself, nah. I’m better off not being her anymore.
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