Being 21 Years Old

Three days before my 21st birthday, I received a birthday wish in advance. Well, that was not from my Indonesian friend, I hoped the superstition of accepting bday wish in advance wouldn’t happen. ~Thanks for that~

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As I got that “reminder”, I walked back to my office from the canteen and thought about what I should change after I reached 21 years old. I could not mention any nice resolution at all.

Around 11 pm that day, I rememberred about that 21-year-old-birthday resolution again. I typed “Being 21 years old” on my Google search bar. I pressed “enter”. It came out with a lot of links which most of them were blogs, forums, or Yahoo! answers. Most of them mentioned about legal drinking age. I assumed that those links were written by U.S. citizens. Then, I typed “Legal Drinking Age” on Google search bar which eventually led me to a Wikipedia page. It stated that in U.S. and Indonesia, the legal drinking age was 21 while in Singapore, it was 18.

Hmm… I was wondering, what caused it was so exciting to have alcoholic drink?

Tell you the truth, my had my first two gulps of beer when I was in my 15. I took a can of beer from my home fridge. I didn’t steal it as I got the permission from my parents “to try” and “to know” what beer tasted like. I didn’t finish the whole can as I found it was way too bitter and smelly. I passed the can back to my mom. I believed my mom was relieved that I would not enjoy being an alcoholic drinker.

Then, as I entered my university years, I tried my first wine from Civil and Environmental Engineering Convocation day. I was 19 at that time. I had passed the legal drinking age for Singaporeans, but I was Indonesian! Which rule I should follow? Anyway, the wine that I tried was not nice as well. I hardly able to finish even one gulp each glass. My friends said that those types of wine were not from high quality brand.

Then, another crazy experience was when my friend asked me to try 40% alcoholic drink – Whisky. I was 20 years 8 months old at that time. Just one shot (plus one full can of Sprite) allowed me to feel dizzy and warm. Umm… I could say that I felt my body was extremely hot! I didn’t really like the taste of that as well. It was bitter and had strong awkward odor. It also made me feel super uncomfortable. I appreciated my friend offer anyway, as I could taste something different.

Overall, I had tried alcoholic drink even before I passed my legal drinking age. I didn’t really enjoy them. If I like to run away from my stressfulness, I prefer to sleep and hope that I will have a journey in a sweetest dream world I have ever gone through. If I can’t sleep, I will contribute my feeling to cause violence through games (I have an external computer keyboard designated for this task, so far it is strong enough to bear my fingers’ forces :D). If I like to feel warmer… umm… I don’t think I will like to have it. I like cold weather, as in 7 to 25 degrees Celcius is my optimum temperature. I think experiencing freezing (not icing) toes is better than staying under 36 degrees Celcius sunshine (like what I felt in Singapore these 2 weeks). Besides that, the taste of bitter gourd juice is better than that of my two gulps of beer. Gosh, I think I missed the bitter gourd with minced meat in the middle soup that my mom made.

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The importance of being 21 years old for me is not passing the legal drinking age. It is not a day for adding my burden by thinking of what I want to be in the next couple years. It is not also the day of spending a lot of money for having fun. It is not also the day to turn from a ”good parents’ daughter” into a “hot seducing sexy girl” (or maybe vice versa). It is not the day for completing RPG games like what I did on my 20th birthday. Then what is it? It is just another day which can’t be repeated. I think I can celebrate my xx years xx months xx days birthday anytime.

I often just regret to spent a lot of my  xx years xx months xx days birthday for idling or doing something none sense. But, it is just fun to do that. And I must appreciate that I still have the chance to stay happy with those none sense things. Being 21 years old indicates that I am approaching the time when I do not have the chance to do a lot of none sense stuffs yet fun.