all grown up now

I'll admit that despite all claims that I'm an extremely grumpy crochety old lady in a 22-year old's body, I'm simply not old enough to claim I have old times.

That said, a recent spate of coincidences have led to me finding several blogs of people from my past life in Singapore. A past life I'd long put behind and may soon have to come face to face with again.

Among them, I found Val (who was Miyagi-ed about 4 blog posts ago) and Chicken (name withheld to protect the innocent), people I went to primary school with.

Chicken was talking about maybe forming a contact list of sorts (I think we do have one, and Doreen has it) and catching up on old times.

These are people from primary school mind you, and my memory while horrible, remembers these people as part of some of the best times of my life. Back in the days before I became the cynical bitch I am now. I mean, I was a jaded cynical child, but I was most definitely much less cynical then.

So I surfed round friendster, and found ALL THESE PEOPLE from primary school, who have since (understandably) grown considerably.

While my memory remembers all of us at 3 feet, snotty smelly little beings in ill-fitting dark blue shorts and extremely bad hairstyles, friendster has shown me how these people have grown.

As Chicken herself said when I mentioned a name, she remembers "A little guy".

That's exactly it. In my memory, we're all still ranging between the ages of 6 and 12. And then on friendster, I see old classmates with photos of their "3rd anniversary", in far flung corners of the globe, (interestingly, very few are in Singapore) from Cambridge to Chicago, Illinois to Perth. New York to Michigan to Wisconsin to San Fran. and everything in between.

I see credentials. Med school. Law School. Scholarships. Masters. PhDs.

I see faces I remember, but inextricably older, puppy fat long faded from angular features. The "little guy" when I bumped into him about 5.5 years ago is now at least 1.76m tall.

and I laugh.

and I wonder if that's what it's like to be a parent.


One day, you look at your kids and all of a sudden, they're all grown up now.