when teenage rebellion hits late

MECC
MECC
Sep 6, 2018 · 2 min read

I bumped into 班長 yesterday and briefly chatted at the MTR station. That talk was half awkward because I was compelled to leave HKU station before the human flood hits Central at its peak hour. But I decided to stay and chat longer.

I peered through her soul from her eyes and can surely tell she’s no longer the same person I knew 8 years back — hesitant, unresting eye-rolling, unsure, unsettled. We all knew what happened with her schoolwork so it wasn’t as awkward and striking a conversation to start with — at least I don’t have to hide my disbelief that would surely be worn on my face.

‘Sometimes I talk to my friends in med school, and we all have the same feeling — our teenage rebellion hits a bit too late in life. We used to be so focused on studies and university is the turning point when we realise how little we know in life and how many interesting things out there that we can try now that we are in university.’

I honestly feel 100% with what she said. I think we were all just a bit too tunnel-visioned to realise the things we could have done while we are still young and have the luxury to do. I am not sure it was a smart move for me to get on the executive board back in year one at all, but that was really my rebellious period. Truth be told, I still feel like that period is extending until right now.

Now that we hit the prime time of confusion, we have more desperate need than ever to search our true life-long goal. This is no different from that when we were only 16. And it’s the time to make things right all at once. Now that we gained few more years in age and in experience.

I used to blame myself for not good at doing something, or not be able to become something due to my upbringing. But somehow my mindset has been changed after exchange. Or I should say I can alter my mindset a lot easier whenever I relapse into the complaining old-self. I now start to enjoy being in the limbo, ever thirsting for change for the better and accept my flaws. (Meanwhile, I realized how many times I got sentences starting with I)

There’s never a thing too wrong when teenage rebellion hits late, as long as you learn from the pain from it in the case that you fell hard on your head.

-CW

MECC

Written by

MECC

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