Sunday, March 05, 2006 @8:50 PM
So I am sitting here on the Sunday evening, trying to upload all the pictures from my digicam to the laptop and selectively to the web to share with some of my close friends and family. The memory card was stuffed with hundreds of pictures from different events. I actually had to delete some not so nice pictures and set the picture resolution to the lowest to get more pictures for the work trip. Please don’t be shocked that I even had pictures from last year’s Christmas yet to be uploaded. That’s just me…I’m so lazy.
I guess there were really three things that made me really not girly when I was younger. Or maybe that was these three things that made me a kook. I didn’t like to go to the fitting room to try out clothes. I didn’t like to look at my reflection in the mirror. And of course since the camera didn’t love me, I was camera-shy too.
But as I age, I grew to like myself more. I become more confident. I no longer dislike the hassle in going to the fitting room. I am comfortable of myself when starring at the mirror. And most importantly I like to go around snapping photographs wherever I am. I’ve started a project of my own few years back since I bought myself a digicam. This project was to snap moments of each event that I witnessed and be witnessed.
While waiting for the files to be uploaded on the web, I had a peek at some of the pictures taken during the past 2-3 years on my laptop. I noticed that I looked younger there then compared to now. Well, don’t we all age duh? I am not lamenting about aging. There’s no doubt that all our cells will enter the senescence phase, which will thus makes us look older. I guess what really makes us look different now is the maturity gathered as day goes by. The maturity is associated with life experiences carved and imprinted on our looks now.
I put up my family picture as the background and screensaver of my desktop at work. Here comes the fun part; whoever comes by my desk for the first time is curious to have a look at my family photo. The next question they usually ask is the sequential order by age of my siblings. I’ve mentioned before that not many people know that I’m the eldest. It is pretty easy to confuse others that my younger sisters are older than me; especially I don’t usually wear make-up and always dress like a college girl. Sometimes my cheekiness has fooled a number of people successfully that I wasn’t the oldest. However, there’s one time I failed in doing so. This person took a closer look at the picture. Then she said, “You look the oldest there. You look more “experienced” than your siblings.” Yep, this is what I was trying to describe. You look more “experienced” as you age.
I saw my boss today and we had a brief chat. “Are you 24?” She asked. “How I wish. I’m already 26!” Probably I have this young gene or I don’t behave like a 26yo? Perhaps my boss is bad in estimating people’s age. However, I think it is more likely that she had this first impression imprinted since our first meeting while I flew over for an interview before being offered the position. One of the important questions that she did ask was my age at that time. “I’m turning 24 in a month’s time”. Since then she always assumed I am just 24 without realizing the digit will automatically increase by one every year.
My grandmother sometimes is really fun to play with. Each year I go back, she’ll ask about my age. There’s no exception this time too. And you know I always put up this cheeky grin and ask her to guess instead of telling her the answer. You know what was her guess? “You’re 23 turning 24 at the end of the year, right?” I laughed madly. “Popo (grandma in cantonese), do I look that old? I’m just 22.” She looked at me closely and then said, “You nearly fooled me. But you are a Sheep. You can’t be 22. You have to be 24.” I laughed even louder this time. “Popo, this year’s going to be the year of Dog, there’s no way I’ll be 24. I’m turning 27 end of this year!”
Again, my grandma may be absent-minded and may be messed up with the animal horoscopes. Whatever it is, I dare to say she’s always thinking I’m the little baby girl, who just weighs 7 pounds and 12 ounces. It is the same for my parents. Although they have a clearer idea of their children’s age, they always view us as fragile small helpless babies/kids. They didn’t realize the younger generations are growing and are aging too.
I’ve seen my grandparents’ pictures while they were young, at around my age now. I wonder what an old lady I will become 30 years later. Whatever I will look, I’m sure the number of wrinkles and white hairs resembling my life experiences will sure make the old lady an attractive one. Ah, hopefully the photographic technology will improve to capture more of this old lady’s great charisma.
