No one can be that shallow! Can they?

On the way to sit down to meditate on my Swiss ball

There are certain things that we cannot refuse to do or simply cannot resist the urge to comply with. In our tweens, it was pop – staying with and hanging out with the ‘in’ crowd. We made horrible choices in our tweens that usually follows in the fashion of that time. For me, it was the advent of hip hop and R’n’B music and coupled with my Asian appearance created a look that would send any celebrity stylists retching in agony. We made mistakes, some worse than others but hopefully mistakes that we could learn from and bring with us to our next stage of life – the teens.

In our teens, it was a case of not saying no: no to drugs, no to sex, no to violence, no to alcohol, no to double decafe babycinos’, no to Dance Dance Revolution Volume 2. We failed to grasp the concept of ‘no’ in our teens. It was a time of pack mentality where the importance of being accepted in a group outweighed the celebration of being an individual. You had to do what the cool people where doing and that was the gospel. Unfortunately, that led to horrible mistakes as experimentation escaped in the science labs and entered real lives. Again, I hope that we all had the opportunity to take something from the mistakes that were made into the next stage of our life – the twenties.

In our twenties, it is a case of saying yes: yes to drugs, yes to sex, yes to violence, yes to alcohol, yes to double shot skim soy lattes’, yes to Dance Dance Revolution on Playstation 2. We finally grasp the concept of saying yes in our twenties. After spending my youth in borderline poverty and denied of all the wonderfully expensive things in life, our twenties embellish us with disposable income and woefully lack access to credit.

Concepts such as travel, holidays, shopping, dinners, lunches and drinks all become ritualised in our twenties. Those concepts are further stretch with the word ‘designer’ in front of them. Names such as Gucci, Vuitton, Prada and Ikea all become regular guests on our credit card statements along with interest repayment, state infringement office and over limit fees.

However, we still make mistakes in our twenties. For me, it is the mistake of over indulgence and the over-ability of saying yes. While shopping the other day, I came across a rather nice looking ash tray. Even though I don’t smoke, I still couldn’t resist the urge to say yes. So I bought an expensive designer ash tray. Was I weak? Yes. Was I over indulgent? Yes. Was it a mistake? Yes.

And now, I find myself fighting the urge to pick up a Yves Saint Laurent cigerette and lighting it with a Cartier lighter.

posted by tykang @ 9/29/2005 12:01:00 AM