being 17 is fun.

imagine, i've only been 17 for how many hours (23 hours, in fact) and i've done so much grown up stuff i've never done before in my life: shave my moustache by myself (used to have the barber do that), buy my own clothes, stay up until past 12, buy gifts for classmates (kris kringle actually), fix my own bed, commute by myself, get a strike in bowling, and so many other fun adult stuff.

okay, so maybe not all that adult and fun. for those who couldn't figure it out, a bit of sarcasm kind of got mixed in with my raving. make it a ton of sarcasm. who knows, i may be a bit bitter about the whole thing.

bitter, but not at today and what happened. i'm used to having uneventful birthdays. since half my family left for the states, leaving me and my dad behind, we don't really get all fancy for celebrations such as these. it usually boils down to birthday dinners (pansit, chicken, the usual) with some close available relatives. and i don't receive gifts that much, if at all. but still, i'm not bitter. i'm apathetic to the whole thing. besides, i can usually get my dad to buy me stuff i want even if for no occasion (but usually he credits it as advanced birthday or holiday gifts). and i received much more birthday texts today than i think i did last year. some even came at 12 sharp (thanks to imed, specifically to the bocoboys). a fun birthday, or as close as i can get.

what i'm bitter about is getting older. no, i'm not one of those *really* bitter people who go on anti-aging regimes and lie about their age, but i'd really like to stay young. as young as possible. i mean, what's the point of officially growing 1 year older on your birthday? you grow every day, if not by a year's bound. nothing really significant happens between the last day of 16 and the first day of 17 (at least not for me). all a birthday really does is quantify your aging, and registers you as another year older.

now usually, i don't mind the label of age. i can often boast about being younger than most of my batchmates (in imed, 5 people are younger than me, 1 of them only by 24 hours) and i can get past teasing and criticizing my friends for being my seniors. in fact, i love pointing out the fact that some of my friends become "2 years" older than me at some time during the year. but when the label strikes back, look who's jumping ship. sure, it's only fair that some friends now point out that i'm the one growing older. i can get most of them back in a couple of months. what i don't like is the label itself. age isn't really something i'd like to grow. i really value being young, young in body (not so young in looks, but i shaved my moustache already) and young at heart. too bad it gets taken away, bit by bit, as the years go on.

but what the heck (i noticed, i say this all the time), can't stop time. might as well take advantage of it all. or at least bear with it. look at the funner side of things. i can finally get a license, as if i can really drive the old toyota properly. still need more practice. last night, the episode of nip/tuck focused on a woman so paranoid about growing old, she kept availing of free surgeries to revitalize her body. she also took antidepressants against her depression, which led to a stroke during another operation. and the daughter of one of the surgeons had her first mens. at the tender age of 8. now i can't really believe that's possible, but there must be some truth to it, all due to hormones in their meat and dairy products. now that's an eye-opener. and when i woke up this morning, the first thing i fixated on was a discovery channel program showcasing ancient chinese anti-aging secrets. really uplifting for a birthday morning. and just this afternoon, me and my friends went on a big denial spree, and shopped in the kids department of robinsons! for a semi-fitting shirt fanatic, it's a little slice of heaven. i bought 2 shirts, a sort of birthday splurge, which were really cool, one featured the message "future rock star" and the other one resembled oxygen shirts so much it was amazing. and they were at rock-bottom prices at that, or at least compared to real teen-adult wear. what's fun is they really fit good, but the rock star one's a bit too tight. might have it replaced tomorrow, good thing i scavenged the receipt from our trash can.

that took the misery out quite a bit. and only 364 days, 1 hour until the next episode.