I’m turning 18 tomorrow and I feel like time has flown by so fast. My parents are throwing me a huge party, my dad’s idea, of course, and it’s nonnegotiable because he wants his business partners and rich friends to show up with gifts. If you’ve seen my previous posts, you already know my dad has a bit of a greedy streak, lol.
Graduating high school was the bigger milestone, tbh. That’s when I felt like an actual adult.
I hit a bunch of those milestones and honestly, it kept getting better and better.
Graduate HS - felt like an adult.
Finished college - felt independence.
Became 30 - feeling like I control my life.
Became a dad - realizing how small I am in this big world.
There’s a lot of hiccups and all. But it continues to get better and better for me.
I scheduled vaccine appointments with my Dr. My parents were anti-vax and once I was old enough I went and did it myself.
Oh, wow, good for you! I guess I’m lucky that I was born before anti-vax was even a thing. In fact, my mother was one of the “polio pioneers,” the school children who served as the nationwide randomized, controlled trial for Salk’s vaccine, and her father had nearly died from polio, so I certainly got all my vaccines as a kid.
I suddenly gained the power of telekinesis
Man don’t even fuckin remember wat happened my 18th birthday other than turned 18
Seriously. Could not tell you. I assume there was cake but I have no idea. Why is that? I can remember my 5th but not my 18th.
Every birthday I ask for pizza. It was largely the same.
In HK, being 18 almost always means you are studying for HKDSE, basically the biggest and most important exam of a Hongkonger’s life. I got a few blessings from my family lol.
Is HK test the same as GaoKao?
Lol funny that I didn’t even have to take the SAT/ACT (US Standarized Tests) to get accepted to a state college because of COVID changed the requirements.
But then I have depression and had to withdraw 🙃
Now I have self esteen issues.
If I was still in mainland, I would’ve felt even worse because you know how much education is valued. The competition is so much worse, labor protection is horrible. 1.4 billion people, ugh cant even breathe in that air (literally and figuratively).
I feel like the US is more like relaxed when it comes to stuff like college, I think I can re-enroll later once I get my depression fixed. I think in China, they just don’t ever let you do college again once you’re past the normal age for college. Also mental health is sooo stigmitized…
Anyways, the pizza thing… is that like very special?
Cuz from my perspective, that’s just an average dinner here in the US lolol.
I mean I guess if things are uncommon, it becomes special.
I have faint memories of being in McDonalds in Guangzhou… I think those always felt special… I mean I guess its cuz its foreign and its full of 味精… felt like a past life ngl, was so long ago.
When I first arrive in the US, I went to McDonalds a lot, its like a treat basically, now those stuff taste so bad (inflation maybe? lower quality stuff?), I just go to Chinese restaurant sometimes instead lol
Every time I see your comment, I just wonder like “what would my life have been life if I never emigrated” like the “alternate timeline” type of thing… yea I overthinkg life too much sometimes.
You know, I never technically even graduated highschool, I had fight school where a 鬼佬 kid instigated a fight and I got in trouble when I was 17, so I ended up hating school. So in the US, there are theses things called the “GED” where like you can just take these tests in Math Reading Writing Science and get school done with. My GED test scores are better then my GPA in school (Grade Point Average)
School in Philly suck so much… so much 種族歧視.
My mom had to move us away from NYC. NYC was so memorable. Literally like 1/4 to 1/2 of the class is Asian, a lot of Cantonese speakers, a few occasional Mandarin speakers too, so I felt more comfortable there… I mean bullying still exists, but at least I never was in a situation where I felt like was the only Asian kid in the room.
It’s basically Gao Kao. Not as bad as it because we still have multiple paths to reach university. If one fails the HKDSE, they can take an associate degree program for 1 or 2 years and re-enroll into a major degree program. It’s not the end of the world. It just takes more time and money.
Pizza is expensive in Hong Kong because it’s a foreign thing and my dad’s side doesn’t particularly like cheese so we rarely have it. It’s also generally considered unhealthy here.
I really don’t remember since it wasn’t all that important or special to me.
yess all my bone cracked at exactly 12am the night of, all in unison.
All of my friends got arrested and I was homeless, so I just slept in my truck all day.
As you can tell people love me at parties.
I’m sorry you went through that. That’s not fair.
Well, yes, but it’s their fault for robbing a McDonald’s, so like, I can’t really question the fairness of the situation.
What kind of truck?
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Does sound kind of awesome to be covertly napping in the day time
I did what I do on most of my birthdays: went to a movie with friends. It was my first year in university abd I grew up in a small town, so that day was my first time riding a bus
In my extended family there is a tradition. The new adult receives 200 € and we all go to the Casino. The rest essentially drink and watch as the new adult loses all the money and learns a lesson. None of us gamble.
Couldn’t they just take your word for it, and keep the $200?
Yes, of course, but us humans have a habit of needing to burn ourselves, not take someone else’s word for it.
I got to wait 30 minutes until midnight so I could buy fuel system cleaner and a sharpie. Walmart can be silly.
When I turned 21 I got a liquor store to break the law and stay open late to sell me my first legal bottle of scotch at midnight (my roommate was good friends with the owner)
I just… did my own thing, by myself. Had my own car, a tank of gas, and some cash in my wallet. No concrete plans when I woke up that morning.
I ended up spending most of my 18th birthday at the zoo, just wandering around at my own pace. Whenever my folks would take me before that point, we’d always end up trying to speedrun the whole place, spending no more than a minute at each exhibit, if we’d stop at all. And without spending a single cent on anything other than admission.
I spent two hours just hanging out in the zoo’s walk-in aviary, feeding seed sticks and nectar cups to parrots. Best birthday ever.
Nothing special. I was just one year older. I never was much into birthday and I’m now many, many years older than 18 ;)
My parents are throwing me a huge party, my dad’s idea, of course, and it’s nonnegotiable
It probably is negotiable but it may happen the stakes are too high. Hard to say without any context.
I threw my dad out of my first home the day he came to visit. Right after he started behaving like he used to when I was living under his own roof, I asked him to stop. He did not. I explained him I was not living at his place anymore and he was my guest and he should stop now unless he wanted me to show him the door. He persisted. I grabbed him by the seat of his pant and drove him out, shutting the door on him. It was not nice and it did not end in the most respectful way but it was still a negotiation ;)
Nothing noteworthy about 18, except voting and easier job hunts (technically, but I had to change cities to find work still, so YMMV). 21 was boring too.
But a week from now you’ll be 40.
Don’t be one of those who at 40 realizes they should have been investing 20% of their income and utilizing their employers 401k match, or taking better care of their health.
The time goes by real fast. Faster than as a teen.
Or at least it tends to seem that way.
Enjoy your 18th today.
Plan for you 60th tomorrow.
Don’t wait.
