Over dinner, an interesting chat took place as my mom started bringing up stories about my childhood days. It started with me going to a nearby bookstore to browse through some books whilst waiting for the dishes to be served. As I got back to the restaurant, food was already served and the conversation started with my mom reminding me how I was a restless kid running around kicking bottle caps, plucking leaves from trees placed around the restaurant and creating music with the cutlery each time we were waiting for food to be served while dining out. Well…thankfully, I don’t do the same anymore but the part where I can’t seem to just sit and wait for food to be served still remains the same. These days, I would either be browsing a book or magazine, fidgeting with my phone or strolling around nearby shops. She then summed it up with a Chinese saying that goes “Looking at the behavior of a 3 year old, one can determine how that person would be when he’s in his eighties”. How ironic!
To a large extent, the saying does hold a lot of truth if I were to look around me. I’m still restless, impatient and clumsy at times amongst many other traits and behaviors that would be too embarrassing to call out. Looking at my circle of friends, the same saying holds truth again. Chilling out together since our college days, we still talk the same nonsense and act as childish as we were 10 years on. The same guy would still take forever to get ready even when we are already waiting outside his place for ages, the other’s definition of 5 minutes is still an hour while the classic would be this friend whose wife would need to explain to their 4 year old son why it’s not right to be having a “light saber” fight using brooms when “daddy” and his friends are doing exactly the same!
I’m laughing my a** off now as I’m trying to imagine how we would be 20 years from now. Try imagining a group of 50 year olds sitting in a Mamak stall on a Friday evening. One is a successful businessman with 2 grown up daughters, another is the CEO of a bank with a 15 year old boy and the others are all well respected men in their own industry or organization. However, the fun creeps in if one were to eavesdrop on their conversation. The businessman would be talking about how he needs to cut down on his expenses so he could afford the latest DJ gadget which would probably no longer be a CDJ or turntables by then. The banker would probably still be whining and bitching about his partner’s nagging and how men will never understand women despite the fact that he would have been in marital bliss for ages by then. Well, the rest of us would then randomly change the conversation from football to the latest console games and pause in between to gawk in awe at the sports car that just zoomed past which then leads to the discussion of which offers the best drive. By the way, I’m ready to put bets on the odds that this other friend would not be there for he has to complete some online interactive gaming.
I can’t assure that this would happen 20 years on but if the saying that some things will remain unchanged does hold truth, I’m already feeling great for I would hopefully still be hanging out with the same colorful crowd that I spend most of my time with for the past decade. Well, that would by then have to depend on whether the entire group can get “permits” from the missus to come out. Nonetheless, I’m sure that would just be a small barrier for we’ll be helping each other out by coming up with possible excuses each time we meet just like we do now.
Some great philosophers used to quote that the only constant thing in life is change. Whilst we should be celebrating the changes that have arrived or those that will be coming along, we would also need to toast to the fact some will still remain the same. Those little traits, antics and behavior that have been and will continue to be identical would essentially be the ones that we would all be so fond of and to that, we should be thankful for that is what makes us who we are.
To a large extent, the saying does hold a lot of truth if I were to look around me. I’m still restless, impatient and clumsy at times amongst many other traits and behaviors that would be too embarrassing to call out. Looking at my circle of friends, the same saying holds truth again. Chilling out together since our college days, we still talk the same nonsense and act as childish as we were 10 years on. The same guy would still take forever to get ready even when we are already waiting outside his place for ages, the other’s definition of 5 minutes is still an hour while the classic would be this friend whose wife would need to explain to their 4 year old son why it’s not right to be having a “light saber” fight using brooms when “daddy” and his friends are doing exactly the same!
I’m laughing my a** off now as I’m trying to imagine how we would be 20 years from now. Try imagining a group of 50 year olds sitting in a Mamak stall on a Friday evening. One is a successful businessman with 2 grown up daughters, another is the CEO of a bank with a 15 year old boy and the others are all well respected men in their own industry or organization. However, the fun creeps in if one were to eavesdrop on their conversation. The businessman would be talking about how he needs to cut down on his expenses so he could afford the latest DJ gadget which would probably no longer be a CDJ or turntables by then. The banker would probably still be whining and bitching about his partner’s nagging and how men will never understand women despite the fact that he would have been in marital bliss for ages by then. Well, the rest of us would then randomly change the conversation from football to the latest console games and pause in between to gawk in awe at the sports car that just zoomed past which then leads to the discussion of which offers the best drive. By the way, I’m ready to put bets on the odds that this other friend would not be there for he has to complete some online interactive gaming.
I can’t assure that this would happen 20 years on but if the saying that some things will remain unchanged does hold truth, I’m already feeling great for I would hopefully still be hanging out with the same colorful crowd that I spend most of my time with for the past decade. Well, that would by then have to depend on whether the entire group can get “permits” from the missus to come out. Nonetheless, I’m sure that would just be a small barrier for we’ll be helping each other out by coming up with possible excuses each time we meet just like we do now.
Some great philosophers used to quote that the only constant thing in life is change. Whilst we should be celebrating the changes that have arrived or those that will be coming along, we would also need to toast to the fact some will still remain the same. Those little traits, antics and behavior that have been and will continue to be identical would essentially be the ones that we would all be so fond of and to that, we should be thankful for that is what makes us who we are.
1 comment:
Boys will be boys :-)
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