Prologue:
If you’re reading this on the fourth of October, then it’s already too late-it means I’ve turned eighteen and now a legal resident of the Republic of the Philippines. I may or may have not been brainwashed into thinking like adults, or I have escaped that life. If I have not, then I may have turned into a drone, mindlessly following the rules of life. But if I haven’t, then I will carry on as I am, a misfit whose goal is to write at least ten books in my lifetime, and to become someone that people look up to.
Story:
As I sit here in front of my computer, typing these very words, I am savouring my last day of being seventeen. I’m thinking over all the pros and cons of being eighteen, and if there are more cons, I will try to find an elixir that will help me remain a seventeen year old forever. Here are the facts:
Pros:
- I can go on fieldtrips without parent’s consent.
- I can get my passport, driver’s license and etc. without parent’s consent.
- Basically get legal documents without a letter of consent.
- I can drive without having someone with a professional license in the car.
- In the Philippines, you can only get a job when you’re eighteen.
- I can enter contests that require me to be eighteen.
- I can finally check that box that says “18+”
- I can go on rides that require me to be eighteen.
- I get to sit on the adults table.
- I get to watch movies that are for 18+
- In the Philippines, when you’re under eighteen and you’re caught doing something illegal, you can’t be arrested. Therefore when I’m eighteen, I can get arrested if I do anything illegal.
- I will be expected to act “grown up”
- It would mean that soon, I’d be graduating college and starting my own life. (No more running to momma)
- I can’t play anymore children games because I’d be seen as immature.
- I have to do what grown ups do. (I have no definite idea what that is.)
- People will call me ma’am. That makes me sound old.
- Just being expected to be mature.