Growing Older

"Learn to be... what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not" 
-Henri Fredric Amiel


Hey guys. I'm a year older. October 6 has a sneaky way of popping up on me. It seemed only yesterday that I was turning 21, and I thought 21 was old!

Earlier this week, I did the only thing that was accepted for me to do.

I got sick.

When I get sick, I am a heaving, moaning, crawling mess. My independent and pro-active attitude disappears, and I become this uber whiny and weak being. Naturally, I cried for my mother's care.

She came to my rescue with a shiny red bottle of medicine.
It was in liquid form.

"Are there no capsule medication I can take?"

The little red bottle stared, tauntingly as if to dare me to taste it.

"Well, your symptoms match the medicine..."

As any other child, I dreaded taking medicine. The "fun flavors" and "new and improved taste" descriptions made me cringe when I try to imagine what they must have tasted like BEFORE all the refinement. My mother use to bribe me with candy and prizes, and she would have to promise that the moment the medicine touched my tongue, I would get water shoved down my throat so the awful bitterness would disappear.

I was so determined to be rid of liquid medication that I would practice swallowing with Cheerios. Serious stuff.


So when my mother held that spoonful of nasty red goopy stuffy in my face, I made a face.

I took a deep breath and placed it in my mouth.....

Well, that wasn't so bad. Actually, it's not bad at all. Why did I ever think that this was a problem? Yah, it doesn't TASTE any different. It was still bitter and the pretend fruit flavor was completely off, but I didn't even need water! Or candy!

I was so puzzled by my reaction that I vocally expressed my concern for what had happened to my dislike of medicine.

My mother, with her Chinese proverbs, wisely said, "Growing up experiences bitterness. Therefore, physical bitterness is no longer."

That's when I knew I was turning 22.