Good luck
on today's Biology paper, Paige! I'm
already proud of the effort from both you and teacher Warren! Sadly, I failed at my attempt to help. Cannot even begin to explain her biology material that I tried to familiarise
myself with. I really cannot begin...or
end! All I know is that I was reduced to
tears somewhere in the middle. Sobs of
horror! I sobbed in horror! That's the only way I can describe it. I'd rather have dinner with Freddy Kruger on
a Friday than be in school now to
face THAT biology! Lindsie said that
Paige sent her a message before she left for school this morning, saying…”As I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death.” ‘Nuf said! I mean, they didn't even have the decency to put it in English! I don't speak Chinese. Our Biology?
Was in English. And I am fully
aware of the changing of times and of the fact that I finished high school…….GULP! Twenty....2 years ago?
Goddd, 365
and a quarter times 22…………….O_O…………………I need a minute. To calm down while I am groped into the realization
of just how old I really am. This is
what happens when you celebrate your 25th birthday so many times, about nine times and then just simply stop
counting. All it takes is a moment of
reflection about the difference between then Biology and now Whatever THAT’S
called. Myself is looking at me all
confused right now, with that “ Woah!!! So, you mean I'm not 34?!!!” expression. I’m trying not to make eye contact. My deception has caught up to myself who is continuing
to rant like…”How did this happen? I thought we had more time! How could it be? That the curtain is closing on me!? CrAp!
Thought we were having a moment
but it’s just Eminem….being shady...under a slim tree.
What is it
though about the fear of getting old?
Especially for women? You very
seldom hear about men lying about their age.
Unless they’re trying to do something they have no business doing. Us? We
lie for totally different reasons. We don’t
ever up our age like men will sometimes
do. And at that point, they’re not even fully
grown men, they’re in the middle of acting like men but thinking like boys. For a woman, I don’t think the fear of ageing has
much to do with a hindsight view of what you have achieved versus what you set
out to achieve. I believe, very
strongly, that it has everything to
do with wondering which unfortunate day we will awake to find our kneecaps sagging. We’re so against ageing that we’ve made it as
close to illegal as we could get it, for a man to even ask us how old we are! Where the first thing they do if they have the
audacity to commit such a heinous crime,
is apologize in some sort of way first,
then ask…then duck!
Been
thinking a lot as I walk a step closer into my 40th year of life
about the fact that there are many things I would have done differently, if
given the chance. BUT?! I want to be exactly where I am, today.
It may seem as though that makes no sense, but to me it makes all the
sense in the world because right now, this day, this minute, this second? I have someone beside me who keeps pushing me
and keeps picking me up to make sure that when I look back on my life, I would
only see truth in the saying…”You’re
never too old to…” There was a time
when I wanted to be a mechanic. It was
that whole BMX bike era. I savored my
greasy chain slipping off, or my tyre being punctured because it would give me
a chance to turn my bike upside down and be the mechanic I was aspiring to
be. In my mind. Still today, even if it doesn’t involve
grease? And Paige put me off that movie
totally. I regret the day I ever
introduced her to Danny and Sandy. But, I
love putting things together, fixing things and getting all dirty in the
process. Which is ironic because I
wasn’t able to do that with my own life until a mechanic found my chain broken and
turned me upside down and fixed me without caring how greasy a job that
was.
The sight
of parts of wood, a screwdriver and packet of screws? It excites the living daylights out of
me. I remember how special my BMX was too,
it came with a radio. So I would ride it
around with its radio attached and wouldn’t care that I would get more
ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg than actual radio coverage. What mattered was, was that I had a special BMX.
Sandpaper it. Respray it.
Those were the days that I wish Paige had a chance to experience, not so
much Damon, because he is
experiencing that for the most part. The
age of technology has stolen many potential cherished memories from our kids,
which is sad and to a huge extent, our fault, because we had the best of times
playing barefoot. Playing games like
stocking, harbor in the air, harbor on the ground, three tins, rollerskating,
biking, breakdancing…doing the worm on the concrete with newly formed breasts, Claudine
directing an entire concert with us and then getting all our parents on chairs
outside while we performed proudly for them, Christmas Caroling in every home
in our neighbourhood in the rain and white dresses and then going to the beach
with the money we’d raised, my favourite games; kenecky and hopscotch, K.I.N.G
spells King…STOP, kicking a piece of the top of my big toe off in the same spot
almost every month, run inside when the video for We Are The World came on TV
and then run back out hoping that it’s not soon that my friend would tell me, “Stacey, you called!” Three most hated words. By then, both me and my radio would be very
much in tune on our way home “gggggggggggggggggggggggg!”
Good times.
I don’t know how Chinese Biology just did that…
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