Sunday, October 10, 2004

17

My sister has still not grown out of the birthday party phase. The rest of us have resigned ourselves to just going out for dinner or such with close friends to celebrate being a year older, but my little sister insists on having an annual function to celebrate in which we (my brother and I) are to be participants, willing or unwilling. So the way it goes is, since the year my sister turned 12, an assorted collection of boys and girls from our neighborhood would gather 'round the birthday cake.

This year, my sister turned 17, and I found myself looking at an old group photo of my sister's 12th birthday. We were all so young and pimple-free back then, it's unbelievable. People have changed, and not just their heights. I can point them out one by one. One lost his dad, one's been to jail, one died his hair pink, another carved his lady love's name on his forearm (or tried to), yet another cried in my living room about his unrequited (bah) love, another was deemed 'brilliant' by my old lit teacher, yet another has since found the love of her life and so on. Way back then, we were so innocent and carefree it breaks my heart to see them all now. Tall, lanky, alternatingly at ease and lost, worn and carefree.

Misha at Sunday, October 10, 2004

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