Fast-forward the clock, and it’s August. As I rapidly approach my final significant milestone as an adolescent (turning 21), I realize I’m quite bad at keeping up with time (as you can see by the date of my last blog post). Every Asian parent I see at home asks “what are you doing after school?” As if it isn’t hard enough to get through school, it’s time to plan life after school. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I have a general idea that I’m working towards. When junior year ended, my viewpoint on life had become “things will work themselves out”. I think I’ve become less worried with the future (for better or for worse) because I want to concentrate on things I’m doing now. This doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan. I have short-term objectives, and if those don’t work out, then I’ll go to alternate plans. One can only plan so much and so far. Enough about that.
This summer’s Taiwan trip was quite eye-opening as it was the first funeral in Taiwan that I’ve attended. I’m glad I was still considered a “kid” this time. But, reality dictates that unfortunately, these events will only be more frequent in the future, and I will need to be stronger. RIP.
So, these two weeks at home really stirred up memories and feelings from the past, more so than any other time I’ve been home. Perhaps it’s because of the uncertainty of how much more time I’ll be spending here. My room is basically how it was since I left for college. Each object serves as a time capsule, photos, dvds, cds, etc, all preserving a tiny bit of my life and me back then. Hanging out with friends this week threw my mind back to senior year of high school, except it’s now senior year of college. At Chili’s, we used to drink Shirley Temples (virgin obviously), but now, whip out that driver’s license, and alcohol is served. We talked about high school stuff as if they happened yesterday. I for a second actually thought I was 18, driving home at night down that all-too familiar road with the windows down. I wonder if other people have similar experiences when they go back home from college. All I can say is that I have great friends and wonderful memories that I don’t want to forget.
More later, maybe in another six months :P