I’m turning 18 tomorrow and I feel like time has flown by so fast. My parents are throwing me a huge party, my dad’s idea, of course, and it’s nonnegotiable because he wants his business partners and rich friends to show up with gifts. If you’ve seen my previous posts, you already know my dad has a bit of a greedy streak, lol.
In my extended family there is a tradition. The new adult receives 200 € and we all go to the Casino. The rest essentially drink and watch as the new adult loses all the money and learns a lesson. None of us gamble.
No, it didn’t feel much different beyond that i could legally get drunk. You’re still the same stupid teenager, with the difference that your actions now have potentially more severe consequences. So sometimes. It’s probably a good idea to pause for 5 seconds and think about what the consequences might be. Easier said than done for sure.
I’m now 32, and the most important thing I can say is take care of your body and your body will take care of you. Work out, eat your vegetables, stretch your limbs, maintain your cardio. And the next 20 years ahead of you will be even better.
I have friends my age that move like seniors. You don’t want to be like that.
Eh it was the summer after I graduated so felt anticlimactic, everyone else I knew was already 18.
Looking back though. It felt like the speed of life got turned up a bit. Like months started to feel like weeks.
Just remember to stop and soak things in
Feel? Nothing anyone would welcome hearing about. I was an avid and driven curtain peeker when it came to reality and it did my head in early let’s say. 18 was a dreaded milestone I didn’t want to age past especially. Anyways…
What I did do was get absolutely obliterated drinking for the first time with my besties in a basement birthday bash playing Super Smash Bros and then playing Never Have I Ever and Monopoly with the ladies until the spins kicked in and I puked a lot. Rum. Never could drink it ever again.
Seperate party with the family of course, much more wholesome. I don’t think we ever celebrated birthdays with extended family. That was more of a holidays thing for us.
I did what I do on most of my birthdays: went to a movie with friends. It was my first year in university abd I grew up in a small town, so that day was my first time riding a bus
When I turned 18 my parents took me out to dinner and joked about me paying for everyone since I was an adult now. It became clear quickly that the joke was how they actually felt and within months they had moved to a new home in which i was not invited to live. I say enjoy the part the best you can and try not to get dragged into the bullshit.
Wild to me how yall are only raised til 18 because they have to do it, why even have kids, just to say you did?
My personal case was probably more to having a step parent. My younger sibling that shared both parents got his college paid for, multiple cars, and didn’t get pushed into anything like I did. Your case still stands in general.
Man don’t even fuckin remember wat happened my 18th birthday other than turned 18
Seriously. Could not tell you. I assume there was cake but I have no idea. Why is that? I can remember my 5th but not my 18th.
I scheduled vaccine appointments with my Dr. My parents were anti-vax and once I was old enough I went and did it myself.
Oh, wow, good for you! I guess I’m lucky that I was born before anti-vax was even a thing. In fact, my mother was one of the “polio pioneers,” the school children who served as the nationwide randomized, controlled trial for Salk’s vaccine, and her father had nearly died from polio, so I certainly got all my vaccines as a kid.
“Oh hey, I’m no longer legally dependent on my parents, nice.”
I got to wait 30 minutes until midnight so I could buy fuel system cleaner and a sharpie. Walmart can be silly.
When I turned 21 I got a liquor store to break the law and stay open late to sell me my first legal bottle of scotch at midnight (my roommate was good friends with the owner)
Ah, I will turn 18 soon too :^). My parents prolly aint throw a huge or expensive party for me. Just go 2 a relative w/ big house and call a few friends after school maybe. I want a blue BFDI (Battle For Dream Island - a cartoon on web which Im grown up w/) cake with some stuff like maybe getting some useful things 4 my pet rock (yes I have a huge “breed” pet rock) and get myself a bike I wanted for years or an ugly sweater, BFDI Woody (the char from same cartoon) plush maybe. I want that plush since it is out and loving the character since late 2010’s.
Anyways, I dont think much stuff will be changed really. Prolly will have a legal right to drink, have a job, drive or smth. And methinks I cant neither afford any one or my mentally ill ass prolly will commit some crimes or go die while being drunk so Id rather to not drink. And the best thing after 18s prolly getting into a some meh kind of an university.
I just… did my own thing, by myself. Had my own car, a tank of gas, and some cash in my wallet. No concrete plans when I woke up that morning.
I ended up spending most of my 18th birthday at the zoo, just wandering around at my own pace. Whenever my folks would take me before that point, we’d always end up trying to speedrun the whole place, spending no more than a minute at each exhibit, if we’d stop at all. And without spending a single cent on anything other than admission.
I spent two hours just hanging out in the zoo’s walk-in aviary, feeding seed sticks and nectar cups to parrots. Best birthday ever.
Not a party, but my parents took me around to meet and dine with a few of their friends (mostly somewhat accomplished folks) as a farewell of sorts. I got sent to the US for college 2 months later and basically never had a chance to go back home in 10 years so
Every birthday I ask for pizza. It was largely the same.
In HK, being 18 almost always means you are studying for HKDSE, basically the biggest and most important exam of a Hongkonger’s life. I got a few blessings from my family lol.
Is HK test the same as GaoKao?
Lol funny that I didn’t even have to take the SAT/ACT (US Standarized Tests) to get accepted to a state college because of COVID changed the requirements.
But then I have depression and had to withdraw 🙃
Now I have self esteen issues.
If I was still in mainland, I would’ve felt even worse because you know how much education is valued. The competition is so much worse, labor protection is horrible. 1.4 billion people, ugh cant even breathe in that air (literally and figuratively).
I feel like the US is more like relaxed when it comes to stuff like college, I think I can re-enroll later once I get my depression fixed. I think in China, they just don’t ever let you do college again once you’re past the normal age for college. Also mental health is sooo stigmitized…
Anyways, the pizza thing… is that like very special?
Cuz from my perspective, that’s just an average dinner here in the US lolol.
I mean I guess if things are uncommon, it becomes special.
I have faint memories of being in McDonalds in Guangzhou… I think those always felt special… I mean I guess its cuz its foreign and its full of 味精… felt like a past life ngl, was so long ago.
When I first arrive in the US, I went to McDonalds a lot, its like a treat basically, now those stuff taste so bad (inflation maybe? lower quality stuff?), I just go to Chinese restaurant sometimes instead lol
Every time I see your comment, I just wonder like “what would my life have been life if I never emigrated” like the “alternate timeline” type of thing… yea I overthinkg life too much sometimes.
You know, I never technically even graduated highschool, I had fight school where a 鬼佬 kid instigated a fight and I got in trouble when I was 17, so I ended up hating school. So in the US, there are theses things called the “GED” where like you can just take these tests in Math Reading Writing Science and get school done with. My GED test scores are better then my GPA in school (Grade Point Average)
School in Philly suck so much… so much 種族歧視.
My mom had to move us away from NYC. NYC was so memorable. Literally like 1/4 to 1/2 of the class is Asian, a lot of Cantonese speakers, a few occasional Mandarin speakers too, so I felt more comfortable there… I mean bullying still exists, but at least I never was in a situation where I felt like was the only Asian kid in the room.
It was nice, but I was still in high school so it didn’t really feel like adulthood, that came in the form of my high school graduation, moving in to college, and then my 21st birthday.
Just enjoy it and appreciate the freedom and responsibility, but also take your time before acting on your newfound right to sign contracts. Maybe register to vote if you live in a democracy that doesn’t do that automatically, for me that was the biggest thing about that age, I was finally a full citizen.
