The bigboy-biggirl age.

Here in Malaysia,
Our Chinese descendent has this habit of saying,
"Wahh! Grow so big already ah? big boy/big girl already ah?!"
It's this funny sentence that never fails to spill out of our aunts and uncles on those children (who are at their teen years) whom they have not seem for about one year or more.
Well, obviously we, the teens will have drastic changes as we go through each year within our teenage years, right?
But yeah, it's like something for them to talk about.
Especially at some-super-big-extended-family gatherings.
And the first question they will ask;
"got boyfriend/girlfriend already or not?"
Which can be a little annoying,
Because many a times, these sentences popped out are in that tone where it sounds sarcastic.
And also, because at certain age within our teen years, parents don’t necessarily agree that their child should be having a boyfriend/girlfriend at that particular age.
Normally, parents would only begin to let go once the child leaves high school.
So, if you are aged 18 and below, and you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, you tend to lie when these aunts and uncles who ask “so how? Got boyfriend/girlfriend already ah?”
But on the occasion case, aunts are those who would normally ask these questions and the uncles would just be doing their own things.
Hey, it’s a general view. Uncles do ask too!
Then comes the second question; “What form are you studying in now?”
Somehow, these people have very bad memory and couldn’t be bothered about keeping track of our ages, so yeah, we have to answer this, EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.
If you don’t experience this, then good for you, like seriously. =X
Owh, wait. The questioning does not stop there!
“How’s your studies?”
On a norm, this question will be asked, as you can see, Chinese family have high hopes on their children for doing ‘EXCEPTIONALLY WELL’ in academics.
So yeah, it is a must to be asked. They expect to hear good things from you, but if you do know how to twist and turn a little on how to answer this question, you’ll be fine.
If you just answer, “okay ah!”, truth be told, that would be sufficient enough. ;D

…

Looking at what is happening; I believe I am at the age where I am considered as an official BIG GIRL.
The age where i…
- drive on my own
- plan my own expenditure
- plan my own future
- going out without asking permission, but of course I still need to inform on my whereabouts.
- study on my own without being nagged at
- owning a laptop
- sleeping in real late or waking up real late, not being nagged at
- have a certain level of freedom
- do my own shopping
- spending money unnecessarily. LOL
- learning how to come home and spend some time at home
- learning to appreciate them more
- hangs out much more with friends than at home
- becoming their driver
- paying for them
- they stopped going all “YOU ARE DEAD” when I get bad results. Instead, making me hell guilty for not saying very little words regarding it.
- have to think about my own safety because I’m on my own already.

Looking at that list,
my goodness, it’s like I was forced to grow up fast, and all this had actually changed … in less than one year.
I don’t manage my own expenditure up until this year,
I mean, I do get allowance and all, but yeah, that was just sufficient, and all my shoppings would be paid for
Now? Whenever I can, I pay for them. *due to some circumstances.*
Petrol? Under my own belt.
Not fully, but literally.
Yeahh...

As I was saying,
This is the age where we all learn to be independent,
Some of us will falter, leaving our parents behind, forgetting to go home as often as we could
But sometimes, when we do realise we’ve been neglecting our parents, we feel guilty.
I would say that this would be the age where our guilt is to the max.
Cause sometimes, we are unsure of what we are exactly doing, and we don’t want to ask for our parent’s guidance as we don’t want to bother them, in a way, we have our own ego as well, because we want to show them that we can do it on our own.
Little do we know, our actions may be worrying them sick.
But they couldn’t stop us, cause they may not know exactly what we are doing, but they know that they can’t do anything about it, because they know it is the time for us to learn.
But then again, they do know what the limit is, and they will step in when we seem to be going to wrong direction.
At least the guilt is pulling is back to our roots, where we stay ‘grounded’.

When it comes to spending money,
We spend more than we would normally do now.
Back in high school, we were given a certain amount of money, which was just enough for us to use.
And when we want to do shopping, they would pay for us.
Well, most of us do. Not all, most.
Now? I even stopped shopping already, because I was not used to the fact that I’ll be using my own money to do shopping.
And when this went on, eventually, that shopping frenzy left me already.
Even shopping with their money now, feels weird. It feels like you’re in debt.
But in my case, I wouldn’t mind spending money on them, however.
Hah. Whatever it is, there is ONE thing that I will never control from, shopping from food.
I can’t live without good food, let alone FOOD itself. =F
Uwargh! It tends to get a little frustrating from time to time.
By the end of each month, you’ll be sitting there, recalculating how much you have spent this month, and sometimes be shocked with the amount of money spent on that month itself.
=/

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The one thing that we all have been waiting for since the very start of high school.
Back then, whenever we want to go on outings, parents would give us a certain time limit, and if we don’t get back by that time limit, we were practically dead; NO MORE OUTINGS!
Now that I have it, sometimes I do feel like I’m taking it for granted.
I tend to spend less time at home now.
Staying back in college, wanting to study until it’s pretty late, ending up going straight for dinner with buddies before heading home.
I’ve even started to neglect Sunny. I used to be able to have time to wash her at least once a week, now? She’ll be in a mess for up to a month long. =/
Sunny, is my yellow car.
This house of mine suddenly feels like a hotel, I only return home to sleep, bath and perk myself up… to go out again.
Though she didn’t say anything, I can sense that she misses my annoyance around the house.
Which then makes me feel guilty.

Being allowed to enjoy yourself while being guilty stricken,
I do believe this is what being a ‘BIG GIRL’ means.

Owh. You wouldn’t want me to start with the driving part.
YOU REALLY WOULDN’T WANT TO!
Or maybe I’ll nag about it in my next post, provided that I have that mood then. =P

…

So.. what happens if you passed this bigboy-biggirl stage?
Don’t worry! THEY HAVE MORE QUESTIONS TO ASK!!!
The boyfriend/girlfriend question will still be asked, NO DOUBT.
And at this age, if you do have a partner, somehow these aunts and uncles suddenly seem to have perfect memory, remembering that you have a partner. Impressive, ain’t it? ;P
Then they’ll ask you what you are working as; how much you are earning…
WAIT! Then if they notice you’ve been long with your partner, or if you still haven’t have a partner until a certain age, they will ask you, “so, when are you planning to get married?”
And if you’re married, “When are you going to have kids?”
Or if you have your first child already, “When will your next child coming?”
As a conclusion, these questions will always appear, whether you are visiting relatives or visiting your childhood friend at their homes, they will be asked.
What I find intriguing is that the pattern never fails to be the exact same on as the previous years. =)
Haha. It’s interesting.
Probably build a legacy on its own already. I’m pretty sure I’ll end up like them too.
HAHAHHAHHHAHAH

For the mean time, allow me to enjoy my ‘BIG GIRL’ moments.