time

at dinner yesterday to celebrate my mom's birthday, it oddly struck me as my sister sat quietly opposite me that she was 17, soon to be 18 come april next year. 17 going on 18. i sat desperately trying to quell the urge to point out that amazing fact. i've been yearning to relive those years and just two metres away was someone deep in the thick of it. i wanted to tell her to treasure those years, to remember to have fun, that very soon, those years would slowly but surely pass away.

i realise it's not so much the numerical age that determines what stage of life we are in, rather it is our position in life that dictates how old we are perceived to be. there is little difference being 21 or 24 in university but the gap is somehow larger being 24, a working adult, and 24, the student.

how strange it is then to be 21, and male, when the rest of such friends have only just begun or about to begin university. there is a certain jadedness about school.

my sister will catch up with me in a while. next year she will apply to universities; not too long ago did i also. and soon will i be a working adult. these are the kind of wrinkles that can be added overnight. these are the major steps that show you've grown older. it is not a number.