1.
“You just use the future to escape the present."
- John Green, Looking for Alaska

I used to think that when I finally grow up, I will and want to leave this place. To do what I want and live alone because I don't like other people's opinions to affect my choices and the way I decide to do things. Or vice versa. I rather be alone than to be hurt by people, and to hurt people close to me. And that, for as far as I remember, was the only way I thought; that when I grow up, I'll be able to choose to be alone. But the day I realize that I can't, I guess that's when I "grew up". I can't escape this life, or the people I call family. No matter how far I may run, they are still a part of my life. I'll still feel the responsibility to take care of them, one way or another. There's no total escape from reality, no matter how determined you might be.

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2.
Last year I was put in the shoe of being an "adult" as an (assistant) instructor/ teacher to a bunch of secondary school students. I was a little dumbfounded when they asked me about some questions and in my mind I was thinking "Hmm, I don't know the answer either..." Why do we think that by being an "adult" (defined by the age of being 21 and above), we should or would know the answers to everything, if not most things? Being of legal age doesn't cause changes in us immediately; we don't immediately become wiser, we don't make better decisions and choices along with the strike of the clock, we don't suddenly know what we want in life. We don't change all of a sudden, but we are expected to.

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