Sweet Sixteen

Sweet Sixteen. The words every girl below the age of, well, sixteen longs to hear. It’s a pity, though. After the excitement dies down you’re left with an almost tangible feeling of… so what?

Welcome to the world of disillusionment. If you prefer to keep your whims about the most over-used cliché that is ‘Sweet Sixteen’, please do not read any further. Because I warn you, being 16 is not quite all it’s cracked up to be.

One cannot help but feel excited as the big day draws near. After all, if you’re being bombarded left, right and center about how you’re going to be a ‘young lady’ soon, you’re bound to be at least a teensy bit affected by it all as well. Enthusiasm of that sort is usually pretty contagious.But when the euphoria wears off… Poof! Reality crashes down on you like a two-ton concrete slab. Being 16 is not much different from being 15 after all.

To add insult to injury, you’re associated with the most sickly sweet song ever composed, sung by a certain Hilary Fluf- excuse me- Duff, which will make any self-respecting 16-year-old wish she was 17 instead. Especially when that song appeals to no one over 12.

But I digress.

Myth number one.

Contrary to what teen novels like Sweet Valley say, you do not become popular over night. Nor does your life change drastically in any way. In fact, nothing changes much from when you were 15. You aren’t suddenly the glamour queen of the century, neither do the boys queue up outside your house waiting for you to appear. Except for the fact that you have ten times as much work to do, the changes are so miniscule, they might as well not even be there!

There is also this annoying thing about being in limbo between a child and an adult. A common occurrence is this: “May, clean that room of yours! You’re old enough to take responsibility for your own things now. You’re supposed to act like an adult!” and in the same breath, “No! You cannot go to MidValley with your friends. You’re still too young to be going out on your own. You need adult supervision.” If that’s not a contradiction of terms, I don’t know what is.

Oh and though the government might think that since you’re 16, you’re old enough to at least handle a motorcycle, the modern day Hitlers - as we call our parents - do not seem to agree with the government- at least on this count. As far as they can see, we’re incapable of even crossing the road by ourselves, much less riding a motorbike!

Studying does not automatically become easier either. In fact, the opposite occurs. It really is IMPOSSIBLE to study when all you can see on the pages of you History textbook is your crush’s gorgeous (I hope) face. Now, if only they were to test you on the life story of your crush…

I could go on for ages but I guess it’s time to quit my grumbling. After all, I AM out of that stage of life already, and quite gratefully so. Come to think about it, being 17 ain’t all that different from being 16… Apart from the fact that we have an additional ton of homework and don’t have to deal with stupid clichés and ‘words of wisdom’.

Oh well. For what it’s worth, saying, “I’m 16” sounds a LOT better than “I’m 15”, doesn’t it? And I suppose that’s consolation enough.