ADULTING

Leonora Gatmaitan

Panimula.

I was born in 1997, and though I was born in 90's, I have the faintest idea what it's like to be a child born
in the last years of 90's and well, be the child of the start of the next millenium. I can't recall most of my
childhood unless you kept a journal or diary or something back then, I can only imagine what you may
have written on it.

Dir dayari, ako bigyan pela, ako bili lolipap babolgam ako masaya.

Dir dayari, ako nuod tapos palo kasi di tulog hapon, iyak ako todo.

Well, anyway, nung bata tayo, wala naman tayong iniisip kundi ang makauwi ng maaga, makapaglaro ng
pogs, o text, o cards, piko, Chinese garter, patintero, tumbang preso at umuwi sa bahay ng nanlilimahid
at nangangamoy araw. Pero bakit nga ba tayo naglalaro? Wala namang nagturo sa atin kung paano
maging bata, walang nagsabi na ang bata dapat matulog ng hapon, o di kaya dapat laman ng kalye sa
hapon o di kaya nasa loob ng bahay at inaaral ang Alpabetong Pilipino so in a way, there's no definite
meaning of what it's like to be a child. Though I don't recall much of the memories I have some years
ago, it's safe to say that the children of today are different when we were young, but are we better,
before you answer, let's go back to the same premise, what does a child do?

Siguro sa atin yun yung maglaro, physically hanggang murahin tayo ng sweat glands natin o di kaya's
magreklamo ang lalamunan natin aa uhaw. But for the kids today, a child does things we were only
privileged to experience when we were already in the brink of childhood, to them playing in a tablet is
fun, watching Youtube videos is fun, and even watching movies in the confines of a rectangular piece of
technology, does it make their childhood better or ours? No. There's no better here. We make the most
of our childhood the best way we can and the best way we know how.

Anyway, I'd like to believe we are the most awkward generation, tayo yung nakaabot sa full-blown larong
kalye at tayo rin ang nakaabot sa pag-usbong ng todo-todo ng technology. Maybe that is why people of
the older generation brand us Millenials us tamad, impatient, purpose-driven, and so on and so on. But
then again, like when we were a child, what does an adult do?

XXXX

There's something I am curious about, when male kids cry, why do people assume they're gay? Or ask if
they were gay? Can't kids cry? Or they're not allowed to cry if they're male species? Bakit? Wala bang
tearducts ang mga lalaki? Or wala bang rason para umiyak ang mga lalaki?