22 & 4 days

that was a really strange day. after my mum reminded me of my birthday on monday (3/10) i couldn't help but wonder if anyone else remembered. this thought actually embarassed me, and i quickly told myself: it doesn't matter if anyone remembers la. already how old liao. eh. how old ah? for that moment i thought i was going 23. my poor brain... what have you been going thru??

and so on wednesday, i actually managed to forget that the next day would be my birthday. went about my usual wednesday schedule: skipping the 10am SC3101 lect, going for tuts, plan cg with carol, hang out at yih pretending to study. i can't remember how, but benjy got stuck at yih so i accompanied him, surfing silly websites, learning weird words etc. we were bugging joanne, and she actually remembered my birthday, and benjy was surprised. after the obligatory "happy birthday/thank you thank you" we went back to erm... kittenwars.com? something like that. joanna then smsed me happy birthday (HB), which still surprised me la.

so on thurs, i was actually mildly content, and went for th 8am philo. during lect, i bugged jon with my criticisms of Descartes, tho he says that kept him awake. i was beginning to be a bit suspicious as nobody seems to remember my bday at all - another embarassing thought! how could i be so demanding? ppl got so many deadlines to worry abt... why bother with my 23... 22nd birthday? not impt la.

but actually, they did remember! alph and gang brought me a tissue-box "birthday cake" complete with candles, with audrey chanting "cakes are a social construct!" this phrase is to be featured on the bday card audrey's gang made for me (in 2 whole hours). it was really funny to have a tissue-box cake tho! who else would ever have such a thing? and of course, there was a real cake, and the best present for me: an arts corner filled with the arts people... i was so amazed by the entire thing that i actually reassessed my judgment of birthdays as being pointless. mine revived arts corner! how cool is that? this effect was to flow into cg later, as a whopping 15 ppl turned up~ i only hope that it would last la.

but the celebration wasn't everything... stella called from hawaii to wish me~ and it so happened that jon & marcus were around too when she called, so the 4 of us had a mini-gathering... haha... it was 22min (where got so zhun one) of long-dist call before we all started worrying for her phone bill and hung up reluctantly. just when i thought getting an overseas phonecall for your birthday really rocks, i got another one the next day from erina~ oh how i miss her... but i suddenly wondered if she would come back with an american citizen baby. that would be AWESOME! please come back soon dear sis...

but those still weren't the most surprising phone calls i got. catherine's one was. i was almost shocked! the sad part was that i had lost her number when i changed phone... so i couldn't recognise her instantly. but her voice still made my heart skip a beat. the memories... i still haven't forgot

that night i had another birthday cake... at home. it's been more than half a month since i last went home, and the tv remote actually seemed remote! (pardon the puny pun.) for the first time in more than a decade, i actually sang the birthday song with my family... it was like a dream come true. just 5 yrs ago, this wouldn't have been possible. my family has gone such a long way... i couldn't help feeling a sense of pride... and pure joy.

i couldn't deny it any longer: i was touched. ppl were rushing for deadlines, remember? and yet they remembered. and celebrated with me. even though i myself was so skeptical abt birthdays. "birthdays are a social construct!" well, for that one day, it certainly didn't seem so.

thank you, everyone, for celebrating the "milestone" with me. i couldn't have made it this far without you!