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Growing Up

There are two sticky notes on my desktop. One for my assignments, one for my daily goals. In the latter, one stands out for its redundancy in being there: 'Talk less. Listen more', a statement meant to arouse in me some kind of mature, adult behavior.

Not that I never tried. There has been days when I have kept a straight and mature face and nodded calmly when people were talking to me and gave the impression that I was always in deep thought. Such days really existed. Just that they did not last. Sooner or later, somebody would come along and make a rather stupid comment, a situation I call 'Asking for it'. The temptation to point out his brilliance would be too much and once it started, it never really stopped.

Though the person you see today is a far cry from the same boy who used to rush to the library after lunch during primary school, the same boy who loved his books and the same boy girls loved to share their secrets because they knew he could do anything but talk. The boy would go on to change in Primary 6. Library was forgotten in the middle of Pokemon, books took a backseat when the thrill of soccer got into his head, and sadly for the girls, their secrets would soon become common knowledge.

That was just the beginning. The situation became worse in Secondary School, where in an all boys environment, freedom of expression would expose him to a world of unrefined behaviour. Vulgarities became his mother tongue. Girls were no longer the irritating people who played the retarded games, but something more 'special' and talking loud and pointing out individual 'brilliances' was the only way to make himself heard and respected. But in the midst of all the uncouth behavior, lasting friendships would be made.

Things would tone down in JC, expectedly as girls started to express their disapproval of such unrefined behavior. During NS, things would pick up again. Then along came university and the realisation that I had to start talking less and grow up.

Though come to think of it, it would be quite a waste to 'talk less listen more'. It is as if you were given 4 years to go crazy and you chose to keep quiet and act all mature. You might score with the ladies, but a quiet life is not a crazy life.As sang in David Guetta's song Memory,

                                              All the crazy shit I did tonight
                                           Those would be the best memories

For the memories, I shall talk.

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