25 “Cool” things about being 25 ©

I started this note thinking I would write 25 things I have learnt (pun-intended) in 25 years but I realized I had already done something similar a few months back and then I was back to square one with nothing to write about. I wanted to write something related to 25 and hence thought of doing something different with it. 25 with a twist?!

So why did I want to write about this particular age? When I was young“er”; I would get into arguments with my parents which would go something like this-

Them (as usual the set of them ganged up against me):  “No Ramneek, you are still a kid and you need to listen to us!”

Me: “I am not a kid. I am 15/16/17/18/19/20... and I am quite capable of making my own decisions. It’s my life!”

Them: “Don’t be in a hurry to grow up beta; this time will never come back.”

We all have had this sort of argument with our parents’ right? And everytime they said something to the like of ‘don’t be in a hurry to grow up’ I would roll my eyes and silently wonder what the whole good deal was about being kids and promise myself that this is something I would never tell my children. I don’t have children yet, I am not even married but I know for a fact that this is something I am also going to say to my children probably a hundred times more than my parents said it to me. Now I do wish someone would call me a kid and take my decisions for me. When you are put in unpleasant and tough situations; a part of me still wants to pause it and rewind time and go back to being a child again. Getting up in the morning, fighting with my parents every single day over breakfast they forced me to eat and then going to school. The other day I was sick and had unavoidable work at office for a few days and I remembered how easy it was when we were younger, fall sick and voila there was a sick leave and mommy dearest taking care of you at home and we actually got to watch unlimited TV. A flu/viral was actually like a little mini vacation in those times. Here in office you fall sick; you have two options. Options 1; go to work no matter how you feel or option 2; dare to take a holiday and suffer the consequences (shudder). So yes this is the inevitable circle for your life, we all are destined to become our parents. It is true. Don’t believe me now? Let’s talk about this in another 10 years, when there is a spouse on your head and two or three or one (if you are the less the more types) child/children trotting around you.

So in this depressive state of affairs I decided to cheer myself up and jot down 25 things I learnt in 25 years which has now turned into 25 cool things about being 25. Yay! Something to make being in my mid 20s feel less adult than it honestly really is. Don’t be shocked guys; I am sure we will find 25 cool things. Hope for it! Here goes.

1. First and foremost- why did I even want to write a note titled ‘25 things I have learnt in 25 years’? Because growing older makes you want to share your knowledge! One of the perks of being an adult and growing up is getting to share your life experiences or so called leanings with those younger. Ahan. The more the wrinkles the more the ‘tazorba’. So basically since I don’t have kids right now and yet feel old I had this parent-‘ly’ feeling; the feeling we dreaded as kids; that is; of shedding some life knowledge and feeling oh so grown up (in the good way).You have gyaan to share darlings! And the younger 20-21 year olds might actually think you know what you are talking about and look upto you (yes you, imagine)!
2. Well, you can officially drink now. Okay so you were grooving with drinks in your hands when Hard Kaur sang ‘ek glassy do glassy teen glassy char’ but doesn’t it feel nice that now you can do it legally? Admit is baby, it sure does!
3. Alcohol tastes better. Ofcourse we had it when we were younger but it was more due to peer pressure and to look cool (admit it, you did). Now you have “acquired” the taste and unless you are my best friends (:P) you definitely know how to hold your booze better than you did when you were 18.
4. You make money! Maybe it isn’t all that much but alteast it’s something right, atleast when you spend a little too much doing that shopping/ online shopping you don’t feel as guilty about it, only broke much before the month ends.
5. You have better control over your hair. You know how to manage it and how to make it pass through a bad hair day. This has been one big victory. Final score- You 100, Hair 99.
6. Remember when we look at old photographs and can’t stop laughing over how bad our dressing sense was in Class 9th or 10th? Well chances are that ten years down the line we would still slightly look down on the clothes we are wearing today but it would only be slightly. We do have better control over clothes now! We are done with awkward styling & experimenting of the early 20s and have now found the clothes that are our second skin. Thankfully!
7. You have much become much better at identifying bitches & assholes. When we were younger it took us months to come to the realization that about somebody’s bad behaviour was an inherent part of their crappy personality and not just a one off incident. Now we have come to accept that some people are born like that and we have become trained to spot them easy, maybe not as easily as we would want..well we will get there too.
8. You are 25. It is a cool number really. 5 multiplied by 5!! Haha. Okay this one was random but it counts.
9. Not having to study or prepare for exams! No matter how late I work in office some days or how sometimes have to work over weekends, I do not want to go back to giving exams. Period.
10. The much better relationship you share with your parents. It’s simply beautiful how as you grow older parents turn from your care takers; to the ones who seem to not let you do anything; to the ones you rebel against; to the ones who support you; to your best friends and confidants.
11. The evolved relationship with your siblings. At one time you fought with them and hated their guts but now you know who has your back and forever will- them.
12. Having friends you have known for ages. By the time you are 25 you have gone through a lot of friends and have identified your special ones and chances are you have now known them for quite a while which is a brilliant because they feel like your second family. The idiots you love to pieces and who love you back.
13. Your dreams are realistic now. The best thing about being a child is having infinite dreams and not having the wisdom to know that some of them can never come true. It is true bliss. Dreaming and believing it would come true. But as we grow older reality does set in and it sort of hurts, dreaming even when you know it is not a possibility. By the time you are 25 you get more realistic and dream accordingly. And isn’t that good?
14. You know what you don’t want in life. You are far away from knowing what you want in life and are probably going to fall, err, cry, heal and find your way a 100 more times before you know what you want but what you don’t want, that is pretty much mapped out in your head and more so in your heart.
15. You understand the X rated jokes now without having to pretend laugh to save face because you have not understood a word. This happened a lot when you were 20. Remember watching Sex and the City when you were 18 and you could not make sense of a lot of the stuff the girls talked about? It happened with Friends too where in some episodes they cracked these jokes and you would wonder to yourself what did it mean. Well atleast that’s over.
16. You know yourself much more and are connected with yourself. This is one of the most important connections you have to make in life. As life moves on you will change and evolve but the connection you have made with yourself will just grow along with. Do not let it go, develop it more.
17. Chances are that if you are a girl living in our dear India, you have always had a deadline and your parents have always been super protective about you. It never goes away, ever. Infact as you grow older even your elder siblings especially brothers start being super protective. But by the time you are 25; your parents have made peace with the fact that you are a grown up (probably not as much as you would wish they would) and your deadlines have either extended by a lot or gone away completely. And if you are a girl trust me this is one of the biggest plus points of this age.
18. You are still capable of partying the entire night and picking up your tired ass and going to work the next day. Yes, you crazy 21 year olds, Booyahhhh!!!! Not only do we party, ‘partaaaaaay’ style but we also are responsible enough to wake up and go make world changing decisions (well fine, go make presentations/reports/analysis/sales) the next day while you will just pick you lazy ass to go sleep in a lecture.
19. Your wardrobe is amazingly huge now, only if you are a girl. If you are guy I am sure you still just have 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of t-shirts, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of shirts & 2 pairs of shoes. Uff, these men never change! So us girls, we have a lot of shoes and clothes, everything for every occasion, for every weather, for every mood..but yes, we will still cry about how we have nothing to wear.
20. Your music taste has become so much more awesome now. You like different varieties of music & are not just an Akon/ Atif Aslam loyalist anymore. Or for that matter, a Himesh Reshamiya loyalist singing- Tera tera teraaa surooor:P
21. In the journey to turning 25, chances are that in all likelihood you have conquered one great fear of yours till now. Think about it. There has to be something. For me, growing up with just one elder sibling and not many cousins I never had any young kids around when I was a teenager. So I had developed a fear of holding kids, I honestly always thought I would drop them. Well I have overcome that atleast; without actually dropping one. About time.
22. Parents finally understand when you tell them you need space. It seems that the manuscript given to Indian people once they become parents specifies to always mollycoddle your child. After a bad day or a bad fight with someone, I remember so many times telling my  parents that I wanted to be alone, I don’t think they understood it ever because they did the exact opposite of it. Admittedly I am thankful for that but sometimes you just need a little tiny space. By the time you turn 25, your parents understand that. Finally.
23. Well okay, so yes half the people I know are either married or somewhere along the path of going into holy matrimony. If we look at it one way, it sucks. But every cloud has a silver lining my friend. The more of marriages, the more of awesome clothes I get to buy, the more of awesome shoes to go with it, the more of awesome snaps I get to take, the more of crazy parties I get to attend and let me tell you, there is no crazier party than a Punjabi marriage function party! You think you saw cocktail? Well attend a Punjabi cocktail and you will know what the real cocktail is!
24. You have better control over your weakness for something. Like that liking for chocolate which was ridiculously a lot since I was a kid, well that has reduced and now I can easily stop myself from having a piece of chocolate when offered one and saying no. Self control, which is what you learn with age. Umm, writing about chocolate reminds me that there is this Mars bar lying in my fridge. Hmmmmm. Scratch the self control, point 23 is deemed invalid :P
25. And finally the 25th.....You are older but not old enough. Which means that it will be a long long long longgggg while before we grow up completely and stop being stupid and silly. So we can be adults without being all the way there. We are 25 and not 30 yet ;)