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Sunday, February 23, 2003
Estremera: The illusion of adulthood
By Stella A. Estremera
You may feel grown-up with your make-ups and well-coiffured hair for the girls and gallons of hair gel and cologne for the boys. But you are still children. As an adult, I know that for a fact. An adult wouldn't saunter along the driveway of MTS fully made up in gowns or smothered in men's cologne that could be smelled a kilometer away complete with shiny new black leather shoes.
IT'S the season of proms. You see them everywhere. Fully made-up girls in long gowns -- most of them wearing those soft shawls over their shoulders, giving everybody a glimpse of their spaghetti straps and low-cut backs; boys giving up their sack-like pairs of pants for slacks, and their cumpled long, loose sports shirts for ironed stiff long-sleeved polo shirts.
Welcome to an illusion of adulthood. But, that's all it can offer you for the night: an illusion.
You may feel grown-up with your make-ups and well-coiffured hair for the girls and gallons of hair gel and cologne for the boys. But you are still children.
As an adult, I know that for a fact.
An adult wouldn't saunter along the driveway of MTS fully made up in gowns or smothered in men's cologne that could be smelled a kilometer away complete with shiny new black leather shoes.
That's what we adults enjoy -- the freedom from peer pressures that would see us donning long gowns on the night when what we really want is to hang out and let loose.
Still, the sight of these young ladies and gentlemen strikes a poignant note. Welcome children to our world. I hope it will treat you better than it did a million other children who walked in their gowns through all those years.
Welcome to college, my children, if your parents can afford it. And welcome to days of eating hopia and French fries, because that's all that's left of your allowance for the "kinsena". Welcome to the days when Red Horse and Colt 45 is the choice of drink because it can deliver the punch for less pesos. Welcome to days of photocopying mounds of books because it's cheap at P0.50 per page, never mind if in the first world it's called piracy. And yes, there's nothing wrong if you start with Mark or Hope because Philip and Marlboro cost several pesos more. Welcome to the long nights of drinking and hanging out with your barkada and feeling oh-so-grown up. Just one word of caution to the girls... just make sure you keep your underwears on even if you've downed all those bottles of beer. Otherwise, the fun will end with the coming of a baby. By then you will have no choice but to fast-forward to real adulthood. Welcome to the temptation of trying something stronger, but I hope you have the strength to resist them because, much as your peers will attest that it's cool, it can shrivel up your brains and land you in troubles you just might not be able to climb out from. Always remember that between you and your future is yourself and all your bodily constitution. Don't waste it through the follies of youth. The key word is having fun. Never go overboard
Welcome and have fun because the fun would soon end, less than a decade later.
In a world that has to suffer the first world leaders' affinity to war, there is not much future in store for you. Just look through the annual employment figures.
In a world where your leaders are lining up their pockets instead of lining up projects for the downtrodden, poverty will stalk your heels, snapping at it if you do not start on small achievements that you can build up on.
Enjoy your youth, don't rush. Adulthood is not that great. Enjoy your youth, don't rush. Adults don't have allowances. Enjoy your youth, don't rush because after that, you will be an adult until you die.
I'm luckier. On our prom night, I came as Peter Pan. Yup, we were an all girls school and our JS prom was a costume party. A long time ago, I wished we had the usual prom night. That exciting night of being an adult. But now that I am, I am glad childhood was not grabbed away from me even before I was really ready for it. Because that's just it. At 16, all ready to slay dragons in the world called college, I was so excited to be an adult. But
because there wasn't a prom night to reminisce upon, I didn't have the illusion of "blissful" adulthood to crave for. And so I hanged on much longer childhood and had fun.
Looking back, I'm glad I did. Now I'm adult and will be an adult until the day I die. That's when reality strikes you: childhood is so short, I wonder why nobody warned me and my friends about this... Now, consider yourself warned and enjoy. You only have one chance at real childhood. A second childhood is never fun. |
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