The Age Game

An unexpectedly and short encounter I had one day while taking a regular bus ride on a regular day to my review. Here is how it went:
me: Morayta (while handing out my fare to the bus conductor)
conductor: Estudyante?
me: Hindi po (w/ a serious look on my face).
conductor: Mukha lang? (smiling w/ a tinge of nambobola-look)
me: (just smiled back because what he said has not sunk in yet..)

When it comes to conversations, I lag sometimes. It takes a few seconds before I realize that what was really said to me. If took a minute and I still didn't get it, that meant I am never going to get it which meant I would need to make some clarifications. As to the case of the bus conductor, I didn't have that chance and even I did, I wouldn't want to make the conversation longer and that has nothing to do with his being a bus conductor.


Going back to what I was supposed to write, my age has been a subject of guessing games dozens of times. I check the mirror and I don't really look I'm turning 36 this year. I'm not bragging about it. It's just that I'm happy that I look young. Maybe it has something to do with my built being small-medium. My height, I'm the shortest among my siblings. And soon enough, my daughters will be taller than me. Well, I do make some efforts to keep Lucille young-looking (not by the clothes, promise) but I think there's something more than physical that makes a person young. I don't know.. maybe my thoughts, my memories, my positive views. If I were to look inside me, I don't really feel far from being the child I know. When people become adults, they leave the child in them behind (I'm not talking here of maturity, ok, 'cause that's a whole different topic). I guess I can say I didn't do that part. I can still feel how the concrete road felt when I walked and ran barefoot, I can still feel how the breeze blew after a storm, I can still hear the raindrops as it softly hit our roof, I know exactly how our garden and front street looked looking out our from window, the kids singing Christmas carols in front of our door. All these things are still with me, not really making my baggage heavier. Ironically, it makes my life lighter.

To conclude, I don't really feel I look young.. It's more like I feel I'm still YOUNG, literally.