Being 22 is bearable when I'm with these girls

Last Thursday, I turned 22.

When I turned 21 last year, I blasted Lim Kim’s ‘Goodbye 20’. The song was, and is still relatable. I can’t bear to listen to Taylor Swift’s ‘22’ because no, I don’t want to” dress up like hipsters” but I do think “a breathtaking love would come.” Hahaha.

When I turned 17, I was so excited because I think life would be different in an instant. Maybe someone will like me and I would get a boyfriend, I thought, naively. I don’t know why but I had always been ‘curious’ about romantic relationships. Maybe what I was expecting for was a ‘go-to’ person, not exactly a romantic partner. I was longing for someone with whom I could share the most mundane details of my life with.

You anticipate things to magically happen once you’re older, but no. You don’t blow your candles only to expect some good guy to bump into you, right?

Talking about love, during my life I have received many kinds of love from many people which I am very thankful for. These days, I’ve been getting my daily dose of love from a bunch of extraordinary girls.

My beloved girls (Juni, Titi, Dilla, Lidya, Hana, Arsa)

We met up yesterday because it was too long since we last got together. We actually planned to rent an apartment for a night, but each of us is too busy and the tenant won’t reply to our message. As a backup plan, we made a reservation for dinner at a restaurant in Dharmawangsa.

Juni and Arsa made a book with each of our names, they called it “love books.” We wrote in each book how we feel about each other.

 

Then we asked each other questions randomly picked from a bunch of questions we previously put in a bottle. The ask-and-answer session was really fun and please my craving for deep conversations. The questions varied from “why is Arifin Putra so mesmerizing?” to “what kind of love are you looking for?”

To my surprise, my friends bought a cake, balloons, and birthday hats to celebrate our (Hana and I) birthday! Hana also turned 22 two weeks ago, on the 12th.

We were asked to leave the restaurant after 4 hours because apparently the restaurant already had another reservation for our table. It was a good thing that I decided to drive so we could go somewhere else and talk along the way. Mom told me to be home by 9, but fortunately Hana backed me up and told my mom that I was driving and we would be home late. Mom didn’t call until I got home and didn’t scold me the next day. Thanks, Nana.

Being 22 isn’t all that special. In fact If I could stop myself from aging, I would. I want to stop aging but I want to graduate quickly… just please let me get out of college :’( College has been great (terms and conditions apply) but it’s time to move on to the next stage of life, don’t you think? :)

So, yeah. I’m 22 and probably dead inside. But I’m alright and am not that scared of the future. Since I don’t have to figure out everything right now, I should try to not to overthink things to keep my sanity intact. Let’s do better, Alline ver. 22!