'Tomorrow', I'll no longer be a teenager. I'm going to be turning 20. Not overtly young, like some teenage girl but an age still youthful and not at all jaded. However, I'll no longer be able to use the excuse of 'being a teenager' anymore. I'll no longer be able to do whatever I wish without thinking about the consequences. I'll be an 'adult'- mature enough to take responsibilities for my actions, without being able to use the sentence: 'It wasn't my fault!' So, the question is: am I ready for it?
Twenty. It's the year of mixed emotions and I'm not sure whether to look forward to it, or dread it with all of my heart. Sometimes it feels like certain things are going to be expected of me as I become that age- firm decisions are going to be have to made. People are going to have to move on; infact -I'll- have to move on. Things aren't going to be the same and the premonition has been backed up by too much foreshadowing. I suppose the phrase 'growing up' will be having to be used quite a bit too. It won't be about 'wants' anymore- it'll be all about the 'needs'.
From a young age, I constantly worried and thought about the future: that there was not enough time to think, not enough time to be- but here I am now, and it hasn't made a difference. The twenty years- or rather, the past 2-3 years have passed by in an instant. And the answer is still unknown- to all those many questions I've had in my head since childhood. The lingering thoughts and memories of 'true friendship,' late night outings and secret talks-oh, those carefree times- they all keep replaying in my mind, slapping me in the face and forced me to question whether all those things would ever occur again. There is a tiny sorrowful pain inside me because I know that I can never go back to that time where life seemed weightless- where 'we' could do whatever we wanted, wherever we wanted and whenever we wanted.
But is it the time now, to pull myself back? Have I really been letting myself go too much? Instead of having a routine, my life has been like a stroll in the forest- having no clarity and hardly any direction. Everytime I find a certain direction, though, I end up at a dead end with nowhere to go; either that, or I find that I've ended up exactly where I started. I spend hours watching random youtube videos with my stack of book next to me, I go out extremely frequently- get yelled at the next day and still repeat it all over again. I procrastinated again this week- majorly. I barricade people who try to get too close to me. I'm stubborn as a mule. My deadlines are literally in a week.
Yeah.. And I'm not supposed to be intimidated or frightened about the thought of being an 'adult'. Totally. Still, I don't want to be daunted by the fact that things are currently changing in my life and going to keep changing. Losing touch with old friends; making new friends- getting close to some; drifting apart from others. Happy and sad; tired and weird; scared and excited; filled with mixed emotions. I'm bound to be a wreck of some sort- "a mixed bag of emotions- fear included" but I really don't want that to stop me. I don't want those 'what ifs' and '..but's to take over to such an extent that I'll be shying away from the experiences of life, no matter how unfamiliar it is.
At the same time, I don't want to indulge myself in such a situation- put myself at risk so much that I feel trapped- as if I've fallen in a hole and can't find my way back up. Especially when I know a certain someone is so dependent on me- even if it's just a bit. Even if they're relying on someone else more, I know there's a small 'unrealized' expectation from their side in relation to me. Especially when I know that because someone else has 'messed up' so much that I'll have to stand tall and be their pillar of support- through the winds or the storms; through the sun or the rain. I just can't afford to lose myself in it, but when I'm personally undecided about the issue, I don't see how easily I'm suppose to do such a thing.
But heck- I'm almost 20, and I still don't know how to make tea, change a tire or start a fire. The only things I can probably 'make' are instant noodles and sausages. Government and politics are equivalent to latin to me(and let me tell you something: I dont know, nor understand a word of latin).I don't know how to blowdry my hair or put on mascara. I also still don't know CPR, or how to swim. And my 'skills' of networking are close to non-existent.
So am I ready to be 20, as the original question was?
Not even CLOSE.
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