TiMeEeEee is oN yOuR sIdE

dear jess,

Time does funny things to you. Not just you physically, but mentally as well. The one enemy no one has avoided yet, age. When you're 21 and roses are still red, aspirations seem bright. When you are 27 and the clock strikes 12, you sit at home and go what do i do know? Should i mix bourbon and coke and drink it down by myself watching something lame on tv? Or go prepare for the class i have to teach tomorrow? Then as it does to you every year, you start to think about your "achievements" in life, and the wonderful perceptions people have of you. What? you only work that few days? What? you're not done with that theses yet? What? you dont have like a "real" job? And of course being the 'brave' person you are you just shrug off the normal concept of 'securities' and secretly laugh it off, as they dont know the the real 'perks' you get. Thats fine and dandy.

Time. It also makes you more cynical and harsh, less caring about having to be nice to people, and my favourite- the guts to tell people what you think, most of the time. You stop caring about making impressions, and you have the 'if you dont like me attitude, too bad.'

All the reality in consideration, it has been a decade. A whole ten years. And so we did it, and apparently we were pioneers too! RBS96 got together and celebrated our 10 year anniversary! It was a strange thing to describe. What do you do when you meet so many people you havent seen in ten years? Remember in the days when you use to wonder what you would do or be like in ten years time? Well heres my conclusion...

myth : In ten years time most of us would be married with kids or at least attached.
reality: most of us would have put on weight, with honest frens to remind us of it.

myth: in ten years time, we'll be driving nice big cars with professional jobs to back them up.
reality: in ten years time, we'rel still struggling probably hoping for a nice big car in the next
ten years.

myth : in ten years time people will know how to spell
reality: in ten years time some people still make spelling mistakes, twice.

myth: in ten years time you'll be matured
reality: sigh, maybe another ten?

myth : all guys become gentlemen, given another ten years?
reality: the faster you stop believing that myth the better your life will be :)

myth & reality: yes, that guy on malaysian idol was from RBS!! (im spinning around..)

I could probably go on another ten years, perhaps what striked me hugely about people who've gone through lengths to be there that night were two things. In our group, we had people who range from doctors to teachers, our oldest RBS graduate is 65, two who already have kids, those in US or Australia, and yet what striked me was the reality. We didnt come to compare successes although im sure there were many, but instead i saw in the eyes of everyone the pain and trials they had gone through in their lives, and the reality that after ten years they are still found faithful.

Of course the second thing that strike me was that we had our pictures on a cake! Wait that sounded shallow. Hence my point that some things really dont change even after ten years.

...you're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself.... You're not your name.... You're not your problems.... You're not your age.... You are not your hopes. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

yours, for ten more years,
jess