Pros and Cons of being 22

1. Expectations. 

Everyone and their mom has expectations. You are supposed to have certain opinions, dress a certain way and behave exactly how other people think you should. The other day, I bought a Redbull can in the early morning and right when I opened it at work, everyone stared at me jaws dropped because apparently it's very un-me to drink Redbull in the morning. *sigh*

2. Everything has two meanings

I can't even write a sentence without reading it twice to make sure that it doesn't have a double meaning. This is very hard since I work in marketing and I'm always writing things. 

3. Financial Insecurity

I'm at that point in my life where I want to study further but don't want to burden my family so I'm taking two jobs and trying to save up money for a masters degree while still paying rent and bills. It feels good but still, I wish it was easier. 

4. No time for fun

Seriously, where did all the time go? Between my 9 to 5 and several classes per week and working towards DYMag, I have no time to do anything else. If I want to hang out with my friends, I have to make so many sacrifices like cancelling classes (and when you are the one teaching, this actually gets worse) and having lunch meetings.

5. Everything is Childish

Seriously. Everything I love turns out to be only appropriate for six year olds. It's super sad that growing up is just not magical. not at all. Time passes too quickly and soon, having a popsicle is not fun, but dirty. 

6. You are in the middle ground

You are supposed to be an adult and take responsibility but if you want to do something that your peers or parents don't like, you are not really an adult, you just become this 22 year old baby which sucks. Please tell me where the line is, I will gladly go there. 

7. Everyone else is getting married, or having a baby

Everyone you meet keeps asking you questions like when are you getting married or hinting that you're getting too old as if your only job is to marry and bear a child and as if getting married was not enough, your classmates in high school are either A. pregnant or B. already a mother. I'm sorry but I don't think I can handle a baby right now, so just pictures of babies would be fine. 

8. Everyone else seems to have their shit together.

So many times it seriously feels like I'm the only one struggling with the twenty something things because everyone else have perfect manicures, can make great dishes, has a healthy relationship with someone they love, has great style, goes jogging and basically is just Glen Coco and I am here wondering how in the world they do it all. 

9. Going out with people in no longer frowned upon

You can hang out with friends, family, anybody basically and even if anyone sees you out, they won't make a big deal of it like they used to in your teen years. You just say hi and move on. Your parents usually don't hear about it because being 22 means you are boss of you. This comes really handy because hello freedom! No more lying to go out with boys. 

10. You are young enough to learn from your mistakes

This is seriously the best thing because I make a ton of mistakes but everything is a learning experience and I love that I can devour this life in whole, the good and the bad. It's exhilarating and overwhelming but I know that there are good things in my way and that makes being 22 just about right. 

What would you add to this list?

Currently: April

So many things to catch up on. This month has been big on books! (I've read about 5 books so far this month and that's the highest monthly rate since two years back, whoo!) The downside is, I still have too many TV episodes to watch. *sigh* 

Prom This movie was so so cute! Ah, good girl meets bad boy, nice guys getting the girl, non-mean popular girls, prom and cheesy teenage romance! It was so adorable and I loved watching it. It's such a good feel-good movie. 

Imagine That I don't even know how I got this movie but any movie cover that has a little kid (and not a horror flick) has so far not disappointed me, so I am having lots of good feelings about this movie too. 

NCIS S4 I'm finally catching up on my favourite navy cops team. (and possibly the only navy cops team I watch, haha). I'm a huge fan of crime shows, police procedure ones especially. I have a morbid fascination with serial killers and generally humans hurting other humans. I could never do it but watching people who do it and why they do it is so interesting. Also Palmer and Lee & McGee and Abby are reasons I love this show besides Gibbs. 

The Engagements This books started off with DeBeers engagement ring marketing and that's two of my loves. Diamonds and marketing. Mostly the latter. So far, the book is really interesting and I am loving the style of writing and how the story is progressing. Very alternative and modern-day. 

The Shining Girls I read loads of good reviews about this book and it has a time traveler so hopefully it won't disappoint me That cover is very interesting. 

Looking for That Girl - Tim McGraw For a country fan, I haven't heard much of Tim and while this song is way pop than country, I still love it. The references are so fun and country songs always make me feel like I'm sipping lemonade on a beach somewhere or if I'm running through a cornfield. Must be that rhythm and vocals. 

What's keeping you entertained this month?

Review from a Factionless

So, a couple nights ago I cancelled (read more along lines of opportunity cost versus benefits here before judging me!) a class to go see Divergent with the zombies. Now, I was having really low expectations for the movie because the book was a major disappointment. However, I wanted to see some good action and basically see Shailene be anyone but Amy Jurgens and I was well, surprised, weirded out and perplexed.

Here's a picture of River Song reminding you what I write down is full of 

First, here are some names this movie could have been called

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- That movie where Shailene's hair stole the show. I mean, seriously. Jolene compares nothing to Shailene and her auburn locks that are just so magnificent. No wonder she could never be in Abnegation. Her hair was meant to be in Dauntless.

- Tris Prior and that time she looked up people's tattoos. Not just once, but like three different times and if this move was any longer we might see her looking up more people's tattoos. In fact, I think one reason she chose Dauntless was so that she can look up more people's tats!

- Tris Prior is a Special Divergent Snowflake. Partially, it's not her fault. It's the faction system and the writer's need to make Tris become that ferocious and fearless heroine. If you can change factions, doesn't that make everyone Divergent by default? No? maybe I don't know anything because I'm not a freaking special Divergent snowflake.

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- The Bucket List 2: Dystopian Chicago Version. Move over Morgan Freeman, Tris is jumping off moving trains, jumping into holes, climbing Ferris wheels, eating hamburgers, getting tattoos, killing people, zip lining, making out with instructors, crowd surfing and more. 

- That movie where a Kate Winslet lookalike played the villain. This is my fault. I thought she looked so much like Kate and I was telling Abe that and he was like "yeah" and later only did I know it was indeed Kate. :|

- Amy Jurgens & that time no one thinks she can do anything. This movie had so many Amy moments, it made me laugh so much. Especially the scenes where Tris is holding a gun and people keep telling her she can't shoot. Amy in Secret life is the same. She's such a goody goody no one thinks she is capable of doing anything. 

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- Hazel and Gus's Dystopian Chicago Adventure! Bonus: Featuring cameo appearances by Rose and Sutter. Plot: Gus and Hazel find themselves playing a reality show pretending to be brother and sister forced to wear 50 Shades of Grey and they decide they like Blue and Black better so they part ways Hazel falls in love with her instructor. 

Things I wished to see more of:

- Back stories: Like Al's story and why the betrayal made Al suicidal.

- More of shirtless Four. I mean, there was only one scene. They could have at least showed us Four scenes of shirtless Four. I'm sure no one would mind. 

- Less make-up shots. It's a dystopian Chicago for crying out loud. People are factionless and dying and still Tris has time to have perfect smokey eyes? 

- More action. Like when Tris beat Molly up. 

- That scene where Eric embarrasses Tris when she comes back from Erudite. I swear Eric was there was for the first half of the movie, and he makes NO appearances until the last 10 mins. WHERE DID HE GO? 

Things that don't make any sense (or all the times I rolled my eyes while reading/watching)

- Factions. Are people in Tris's world completely one dimensional characters that are ONLY one thing? Like you need to be brave to be selfless and so on. Also, WHY did they make factions? There was a mention  of a war but who were they fighting against? Also what about everyone living outside Chicago? What happened to them?

- Faction before blood. What a stupid motto. So, sixteen year olds are supposed to leave their parents just because they want to be cool and jump off moving trains? 

- IS BRAVERY BEING STUPID AND WEARING BLACK AND JUMPING OFF MOVING TRAINS. OMG SUCH BRAVE MUCH JUMP MOVING TRAIN WAU. 

- Also what's with jumping from moving trains? What if you're disabled? Is there no place for disabled people in Tris' world? or are everyone perfect? And and do all these people jump off the train like four times everyday and how in the world can they have so much energy and how are they alive so far? Dauntless should be called the land of stupid decisions and tattoos. 

- Where are the rest of the factions? Also who the faction decided that Abnegation should be political leaders? Why can't they have political leaders from all factions? What is even the point of that stupid war?

- Erudite thinks Abnegation spends money on factionless but Erudite has enough money to research on and make highly complicated serums by spending billions of dollars but they are unable to buy a car or have enough food? I'm sorry this whole thing just went over my head! At least in hunger games we have Capitol and Snow to blame for because they are plain evil. Here no one's evil and if they just went and talked with Abnegation, this book didn't even needed to happen. I'm pretty sure Abnegation people would listen and give away their spots easily, afte rall they are super selfless. 

- Factionlessness. Why are factionlesss people the scum of the society? Why is that they can't go back to their own faction? And if Dauntless is choosing only 20 people to initiate then they are just leaving the rest to be factionless and to die? What are the factions even there for if you are gonna let a bunch of 16 year olds rot and die because of your stupid and unjust system? WHERE IS FREAKING ERUDITE WHEN YOU NEED THEM? 

Things I liked about Divergent 

- Caleb not choosing Abnegation. It was one of the two things that I didn't foresee and I liked it very much. 

- Caleb and Tri's parents pain. To have both their children leave them and to have them become the enemy must be heartbreaking. The writer could have shown this pain so well but it goes undermined. 

- The logos for factions. They are pretty cool and I loved them.

- Christina. She was a kick-ass character and we should have seen more of her. 

- Four's back story. I really really liked the fear landscape and Four's story. It was amazing. 

I have heard that the other two books and better so I'll probably read and watch the upcoming three movies as well. Even for just the lulz. Are you a true Divergent fan? or are you like me and just could not like it?

Making a wish on a passing car

This week's a blur. A mix of really bad moments and really good moments. I like it, it's an okay mixture. 

Last weekend was filled with watching too many movies, reading two books (both of which I loved so much - Eleanor & Park and Someday Someday Maybe) and also in pain because of toothache. *sigh* Also I had a new class (Macroeconomics, but they seemed alright) on a Saturday, I know what you're thinking. I can think of a thousand better ways to spend a Saturday night but when you commit, you go all the way including classes on weekends. 

Sundays are my least favourite days because the start of weekend means so much work and more classes. But somehow I manage. 

Mondays are my favourite. I have a really interesting batch on Mondays and also I went to dentist and actually had a good time. All the way there and back, I was being extremely werid and in my head I kept thinking of all the ways it could go wrong but my new dentist Miss A is amazing (plus she's not a teenage team with a vengence so all the better for me!) and she doesn't think my teeth is that bad. I don't know if this is a compliment or not. 

all the postcards that is travelling around the globe!

Tuesday was pretty normal. I finally managed to post all the postcrossing swap cards (which is my new hobby!) and also it was rather productive and I had one class but Tuesday was a rather sad day for me and no matter how hard I tried to cheer up, I just couldn't. *sigh*

Yesterday was the best day of the week so far. I was feeling good since morning. After work I ran to class; literally just ran because I was 20 mins late! (part of which is because my colleague and I stopped to take a picture of a really hot guy we saw on the road but damn my photography skills I only managed to take the wheels of the pick-up he was standing on and I swear we are not creepy, we just admire beauty haha) and I was really hungry throughout class so I  kept forgetting words (like I kept remembering governor instead of guardian) and also one instance in class, I got scarred for life because I thought a student was a ghost. :| True story, not my proudest moment but lack of food makes me weird. 

Houdini, Abe, Hishko and I long ago in the Floating Library. 

Last night, Nemo Hishko and I went to Book fair and then Jin and Abe joined us and it was like a mini DYM reunion because everyone was there (except for my orginial boos, Houdini, Wuffy, Potsy, Richy, Iyya and Nutts). We could not find anything we really wanted (like TFIOS, poetry books or CLUE) but somehow we managed to have a really good time. Later, the Zombies and I went to have some food and we ended up talking about out love lives (and some of our non-existent ones, ahaha) and giving code names to people we have crushes on. It was hilarious and seriously amazing. I wish we could do it over and over, because these people make me so happy.

Current song: Waiting for Superman - Daughtry

We have so many cool plans for the weekend and I can't wait for it! I hope you readers had a great week. 

Snail Mail

I have always loved letters, when I was little my dad introduced me to letters and I would write to everyone, my friends, family, the president. After he moved away for work, he would send me a letter every week and I'd respond and it really made me appreciate and value letter writing. Thanks Dad! 

The art of letters nowadays is lost on us, because who wants to spend time penning your thought when you can type away. Between e-mails, Facbook statuses, tweets and Whatsapp messages, we hardly have time to actually sit down, pick up some stationery and write your heart out.

While I do love all the technological advancements bringing us closer in terms of communication, I do love letters. During university days, I would write letters to my favourite classmates every single semester. They still probably have six semester's worth of letters and I was glad to get 2 letters in three years. haha. While I do love getting letters, I don't write in the hopes of getting anything back. I write for the love of it and because it makes me happy. 

I love the smell of paper when it gets old (hello, obsessive book sniffer here!) and I love the way the pen marks shows in paper and I love all the little details like how people put hearts instead of dots on their i's and little quirky things like that feels so good. I found a couple penpals through Instagram and different sites and I have been writing letters. There's something so beautiful about writing a letter to someone in a faraway land that you don't even know! 

Do you wanna be penpals? It doesn't have to be penpals (we could even be emailpals!)

Perks of dating Draco Malfoy

This is a new segment (thanks to Moonz for the idea!) where I plan to tell you why I think you (and I) should date certain fictional characters (and sometimes even non fictional characters) whom I fancy.

1. Have you seen him? Uh, he is just so handsome and everytime he takes a step it's just perfection. Also that smirk, uh I die. 

2. He's evil and the master of mean comments. 

3. Hello, Malfoy Manor. Dates with him would be so magical and unforgettable.

4. He's totally awesome! 

5. He would totally climb up a tree near your house to talk to you, like in an 80's movie.

6. He's rich and every birthday and on special occassions you bet he'd buy you the best things money can get. 

7. He has a great sense of humour, and while is it somewhat mean, life would never be dull with Draco.

8. He would totally kick ass and if anyone ever makes you cry, you bet his father will hear about it he would personally make sure that person never sees light of the day. He's your knight in dark armour.

9. He's great at making dramatic exits. 

10. He's sensitive and emotional at times. Isn't that what makes the best boyfriends? 

11. His whole family has such good genes, you bet your children would have perfect blonde hair and flawless skin!

12. He is unafraid to cry. A man who breaks down when necessary means he cares. (or maybe I'm wrong here but come on, this is Draco Malfoy!)

13. He is named after a dragon. 

Who would you want to date from the Wizarding World? I have always had a crush on Ron Weasley but also think Hermione is the best for him. Romione forever!

I'm as gone as yesterday

Hi, I have neglected the blog again, eh. The same old excuses. Work, classes (oh hello new excuse!), hobbies, laziness, etc. 

Every day has become so routine you would think I would have it wrapped around my fingers but alas the world works in mysterious ways, or maybe I'm just too lazy to actually get things done on my time. Why, I have a reputation of procrastination to live up to! 

About a month ago, I started my first teaching gig (yes, I call it a gig because it's like a hobby even though sometimes it takes everything I have) at a college and guess what the subject is? I'll save you from the trouble, it's Economics. Yes. I know. That one subject that I don't really like (read more along the lines of hate) but still manage to score really well and how I regret being so happy thinking I'd never have to touch another Economics book my whole life. Oh how wrong I was. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I go to class with a fuming rage at the subject, no. 

Instead, it's actually pretty cool because it's a challenge to make these students fall in love with a subject that I could not bring myself to love. I know, leave it to me to find silver linings in everything! I try to make the subject as interesting as I possibly can. Like this one time, I used the relationship between Elena, Damon and Stefan to teach a class opportunity cost, that was one of those good times. I think I'm doing pretty okay considering the fact that I have never taught in my life. It's all a learning experience eh, and I'm learning so many new things everyday. It's a blessing in disguise, or that's what I'm telling myself. 

I do love teaching, ah the perks! Having people actually understand the subject because of me, that is beyond amazing! During my third class, one student told me that they enjoy my lectures and that my classes rock! AHH, I was so happy I texted my mentor right away (hi, Mh I donno what I'd do without you) and another time I kind of embarrassed a student by being a bit sarcastic (note to self: DO NOT take anything you teaching mentor says literally) hahahaha. Mistakes are all part of it eh. 

Besides 12 hours of classes and 40 hours of work every week, I also try to keep up with my reading (finished another book in two days, woo-hoo!), watching movies (Soul Surfer made me cry not once but throughout the last hour of the movie, sigh) and trying to watch a season of a series per week which is not going too well because my video player broke down and I always leave my laptop at work and Hipster Sister would die of boredom if I borrow her laptop and Mick won't let me watch anything on her PC. Ugh, what are sisters even for? 

As I get back to more social media work and making exam papers (which btw is harder than I imagined), I hope you have a great week! 

Current Song: Slow Me Down - Sara Evans

So, what have you guys been up to?