Growing Up

2010

2004 (couldn't find any earlier pictures, didn't believe in cameras then :p)

I stumbled across a page of someone whom I used to babysit all the time. She was a year old when I was 11, and because of the close proximity our families had, I tend to forget that she too, was growing up. I used to try my best in making her laugh, took care of her when she was in her cot, went bonkers when she fell down and cried and for a while, she became the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

This morning, looking at her grown up pictures of hanging out with friends at the mall, talking about boys and school, using words such as 'babe' and 'sexayh', I smile, thinking, this girl isn't a baby anymore. She's a young adult and I keep forgetting that.

There used to be a time when she thought the word "awak" was her name (because that's what her sister and I referred each other as ), and for a good 8 years, that name stuck to her when referring herself to members of the family. It was hilarious! You should have seen how she communicated with her baby brother (also grown up now).

Her: Awak (as in herself) nak pegi main kat padang. Jom.

Him: Awak(as in himself) tak nak. Awak nak main game.

And that was when she was 8, and he was 6. (You should have listened to them talking when they were younger. Lagilah kelakar cos it never made sense to us, only them)

This made me think of how as they're growing, I am too. These little kids who used to be playing in the field, looks up to us (the older generation) even more, and to them, we must be some super fantastic grownups! How I would like to insert an inappropriate laughter to that sentence.

Inarguably, no matter how young at heart we feel, we must grow. Grow in the sense that we must learn that these young people look up to us, like how when we were at their age, looking up to our older siblings and cousins alike. We must set a good example, because in their eyes, we may be still be that big person they used to depend on for care, and now, for advice on being an adult. And what more better way to do that, than to grow up ourselves, right?

We can't let our generation down, and theirs. We are at that stage where everyone is interested n knowing what we do, what we think, what we plan on doing etc etc. We are THE generation everyone is talking about. We can't let them down.