So it’s that time of the year again.
You are finally home with your family. Not forgetting relatives and friends whom you would only probably meet once a year.
And more often than not, we feel the need to impress them, and compelled to show how grown up we have become.
So we start chugging down beers (bottoms up, of course) when our peers challenged us. We slam down $50 notes during Black Jack when our relatives start jeering us, “Why bet so little? Didn’t earn enough ah?!”
This list is further populated by getting our hands on the new Samsung Rose Gold Note 3, donning branded shirts and shoes, and so forth.
And we do it, just because we feel the need to impress.
To prove up we are no longer children.
Forgive me if I am wrong, but since when the ability of bottoming mugs of beer is a requirement for being an adult?
Or the amount of bet you placed during a game of Chinese Lucky Dice correlates with how much of a risk taker you are in the real world?
Has the measure of being a grown up reduced to an individual who smells like an ashtray and appears red-faced in photos? Is it an adult thing to insist in driving despite we are not able to walk a straight line?
Is being an adult waking up a friend ,in the middle of the night, and asking for some urgent cash because you have lose all your “angpow” money in bets and card games during the festive season?
Are these the qualities of true successful adults?
In truth, one does not need to look to the loud and boisterous who try so hard. Instead, the true grown up is the person who silently bakes in the kitchen, who helps with the house chores, weeks before Chinese New Year.
It’s the executive who knows his priorities in life. To shut off his email and phone during Chinese New Year, and spend time with his family.
It’s the graduate who despite of earning so little at her first job, she saves up so that she can fly back to her hometown in time for the reunion dinner.
So, what if, the graduate does not have a fancy new phone, or the executive refuses to drink, or the uncle who do not want to gamble although he is being taunted by his peers?
They have a choice, and they choose not to condone.
And neither should we.
Also read: Need anything this CNY? You can rent it from someone near you!
Image Credit: Inmagine
