The Finality of Age
As clocks continue to tick, as the sun and moon interchange, and as the season pass from the spring bloom to autumn leaves breeze, it marks my birthday — 18th birthday.
There’s something special about the age 18. In the Philippines, families celebrate a woman’s coming-of-age through ridiculously priced parties, flamboyant dresses, and a no reluctant penny attitude. The Filipina chooses 18 boys — whether that be uncles, cousins, friends, suitors or boyfriends — to give her 18 roses where she proceeds to dance with the 18 boys in their classy Barong Tagalog. It’s a long held tradition called a “debut” which characterises eligibility for marriage (similar to Latin’s Quinceanera). The process takes about a minimum of six months to plan and years worth of savings.
Outside of examples from indigenous cultures, lists such as Forbes 30 under 30, Time’s Kids of the Year and more exist to solidify that doing things at a younger age is more impressive than doing it at 25.
Laura Deming, 24, is the Pioneer adviser for projects in the science of longevity. While being home-schooled in New Zealand, Ms. Deming became fascinated with research into extending life spans. She sent an email to Cynthia Kenyon, a researcher in the biology of aging at the University of California, San Francisco. Eventually, Ms. Deming’s persistence led to an invitation to work in the San Francisco lab. She was 12 years old.
At 14, Ms. Deming became a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Two years later, encouraged by a grant from the Thiel Foundation, she dropped out of M.I.T. and founded a venture capital firm that invests in life-extension technology. Her Longevity Fund has raised $27 million so far. (New York Times, 2018)
While it may not necessarily be a bad thing nor will I go so far to condemn these lists (since I don’t really have a structured stance on the matter), the pressure to achieve something grander than myself has heightened.
So, here’s a list of things I want to accomplish before I turn 18 on September 18 which is five months and three days from now (#accountability, amirite):
- Publish a book (would be great if it’s published by major companies with indie presses, like Penguin Random House, though I won’t be upset if it’s self-published on Amazon either)
- Be on the news — if it’s because of founding a unicorn startup, dominating the chess world or doing something really impressive then I’m happy
- If I don’t reach the said goals above, then, at least, I should fluently write code (Python, C++ or java) by September
Since I’m not the youngest person to climb Mount Everest or the youngest Nobel Peace Prize Winner or 16 year old household name for climate advocacy or the 15 year old French boy who invented the Braille system, doing the three should be easy, right?
