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.
For my generation In the US the significant birthdays are 16, 18 and 21. 16 because you could get your drivers license, 18 because you could gtfo your parents house and 21 cause you can legally drink alcohol.
16 was awesome as I got my license and was able to get away from my nutty house.
18 was meh as I was really already out my nutty house.
21 didn’t matter as I didn’t really drink back then and when I did I never had problem getting alcohol.
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.
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’s basically Gao Kao. Not as bad as it because we still have multiple paths to reach university. If one fails the HKDSE, they can take an associate degree program for 1 or 2 years and re-enroll into a major degree program. It’s not the end of the world. It just takes more time and money.
Pizza is expensive in Hong Kong because it’s a foreign thing and my dad’s side doesn’t particularly like cheese so we rarely have it. It’s also generally considered unhealthy here.
All of my friends got arrested and I was homeless, so I just slept in my truck all day.
As you can tell people love me at parties.
I’m sorry you went through that. That’s not fair.
Well, yes, but it’s their fault for robbing a McDonald’s, so like, I can’t really question the fairness of the situation.
Does sound kind of awesome to be covertly napping in the day time
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.
Nothing noteworthy about 18, except voting and easier job hunts (technically, but I had to change cities to find work still, so YMMV). 21 was boring too.
But a week from now you’ll be 40.
Don’t be one of those who at 40 realizes they should have been investing 20% of their income and utilizing their employers 401k match, or taking better care of their health.
The time goes by real fast. Faster than as a teen.
Or at least it tends to seem that way.
Enjoy your 18th today.
Plan for you 60th tomorrow.
Don’t wait.
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.
Nothing special. I was just one year older. I never was much into birthday and I’m now many, many years older than 18 ;)
My parents are throwing me a huge party, my dad’s idea, of course, and it’s nonnegotiable
It probably is negotiable but it may happen the stakes are too high. Hard to say without any context.
I threw my dad out of my first home the day he came to visit. Right after he started behaving like he used to when I was living under his own roof, I asked him to stop. He did not. I explained him I was not living at his place anymore and he was my guest and he should stop now unless he wanted me to show him the door. He persisted. I grabbed him by the seat of his pant and drove him out, shutting the door on him. It was not nice and it did not end in the most respectful way but it was still a negotiation ;)
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
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 suddenly gained the power of telekinesis
Got really drunk and spent the next day vomiting into the toilet. Go slow and eat first!
Lmao I think lemmy.world bans anyone admitting to be under 18 so if admins see this, you’d be banned for a day lol
But anyways, when I was 18… I was kinda in an existential crisis so I kindabinged watched The Good Place… don’t remember doing any thing special…
Don’t think I got a birthday cake… I mean I didnt even ask for one, cakes arent even that good once you get older and like sweet things are kinda overwhelming for taste buds sort of
I think I might have went to a Chinese restaurant and had dim sum or something. Or maybe like ordered food… forgot what I did… but these things like ordering food are common enough that it didn’t exactly feel special (first world problems?) (I think restaurants were kinds closed during covid, so I think we just ordered food, don’t think I got a cake since I didn’t really care)
Like ever since I got to like… idk 10 or something… I don’t remember birthdays becoming that important… it’s mostly just like:
mom: “hey, what do you want for your birthday? want a cake?” like just so casual…
then mom be like, “oh btw did you know I had to go through a C-Section to give birth to you, do you feel grateful that I sacrificed so much for you? 🤗” “Also I had to pay a lot of fines for giving birth to you against one child policy”
Oh yeah, elections…
I wasn’t old enough for primaries but I was old enough for the 2020 US presidential election and good thing my mom got citizenship so I didn’t have to go through that myself so I was already citizen… cuz the naturalization would’ve taken so long that I’d miss the chance to vote in 2020, so yea good thing I didn’t have to spend so much time go through naturalizarion. I voted Biden obviously, dickhead trump literally wants to deport me lol
Had 4 years of relief then this shit happened again FFS 🤦♂️
