-- LIKE YOU WANT ME TO BE.
I know it's weird to suddenly start using this blog again, but I really really need to write this down. This is going to be part of coming-of-age story and I need to document it. Okay, here we go.
On Tuesday, my first step towards actual, social, material adulthood (I guess I could call it that) was getting my first - you guessed it! - card. Awhile before that, my mum had asked me if I wanted a supplementary credit card, so you know, going plastic was going to be a thing in my life. So we went to the bank and got an account set up and everything.
There was a point in time when they needed my NRIC for the creation of an account, and I remembered my mum telling me to bring my EZ-link card. I assumed my mum wasn't going to bring my NRIC (because she wants me to be ~responsible, ooh~) so I did bring it. I was about to take it out when my mum had my NRIC anyway, so basically I didn't need to bring it.
Shaky start on my path to adulthood: I don't have a signature. The lady assisting us (or should I say, me; it's not my mum who needs this lol) left for awhile, and I told my mum I don't have a signature yet, and she was like, "then you just ask her what to do when she comes back!" And being any teenager who doesn't know how to socially interact and ask questions, this was a tall order for me. The lady came back and my mum was like "she has a question to ask you" and I'm just "uuuuuuuhhhh", because come on mum, what do you expect from me ;w; My mum asked for me anyway, so uh, that turned out okay I guess.
After all that was settled with, we went to get my glasses, did some grocery shopping, then went back home.
My mum passed me my cards (the debit one, my ibanking thing, and my NRIC) and told me to keep them properly. I was putting them in my wallet until I realised: I didn't have my EZ-link card. I was kinda chill about it, thinking that it was still in my pockets, so I checked them. It wasn't there either. Okay, not so chill now. I checked all four pockets, even another pair of shorts I remember wearing a day before; not there either. Now what. I freaked out most of Wednesday, not doing anything about it because hey, I don't want to get killed by my mum if she knew lol
I finally got round to telling my mum on Thursday, after we had a really short swim (it was about to rain), and I could tell she was a little upset. I mean I guess her reaction is to be expected, and I thought it would be worse, so uh, I guess that was okay. She told me things like, I should "get in the habit of bringing a bag around when I go out" (it was just a card, omg) and that I have to be more "responsible with cards" (mum pls) and my quest for the week: to call the places we went to, to find my EZ-link card.
I don't know what level this sort of quest would be. Calling up places is one of the more awkward things to do I think, when you're a teenager. I remember there was one point in time, when my sister was in JC, her then-boyfriend was calling up the bus depot, taxi, or cinema (I'm not sure which one) inquiring about time schedules, and she said that he sounded very "professional/posh/proper". Then there are anecdotes from other people on Tumblr about the Fearful Phone Calls that they have needed to make by themselves. Was this a real struggle? I mean I can understand why it would be, especially after being coddled and taken care of by parents.
Sometimes I wonder if my parents are to blame for my inability to talk to strangers or to ask for things. Maybe I would be okay with these things if they had taught me how to do it sooner. I remember the few times when I was left alone to wait for them, or go somewhere ahead without them, and sometimes it's terrifying when you're a kid. When I went for Sunday catechism classes, I had to reserve a pew for the rest of my family, and I used to get myself worked up when they hadn't come yet, because sometimes there'll be other parishioners who come and sit down in the same pew. And me being afraid to talk to them, wouldn't dare say it's for the rest of my family. (2 bad fam, u were l8 there4 no seat 4 u lol)
Another incident was rather recent, I went to cut my hair, and my mum wasn't allowed to sit in the salon and wait for me, so she went to walk around a bit I think. Halfway through my haircut, my mum came back saying to meet her at Taka - she expected me to get there on my own. Internally I was like MOM WHAT YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME HERE and I was irritated. Maybe it was partly because while we were in the car to the shopping mall, my mum told me not to cut my hair so short, and that the length I had was nice. But I like short hair, it's less troublesome and faster to dry and it's my hair :v So her leaving me to go find her after - expecting me to be independent - after she tried to direct me on how to cut my hair, was contradictory, it was annoying.
She texted me directions on how to get to Taka, and I tried. I got kinda lost, but I roughly knew where Taka was, so I was okay. Partly, I went around on my own out of spite, 'cos she said that I should "go explore" so I was thinking, "sure, I'll go explore if that's what you want." There was a point in time when I had change after paying for the haircut, and I was so tempted to put it all in a donation box - but I can't, because it's my mum's money, I knew that much.
The only troubling thing was that I took quite some time. At one point, while I was trying to orientate myself, she messaged me telling her when I'm done. And I thought "poop, what if I tell her I'm done and she comes back to the hairdresser's and find I'm not there" so it took me awhile to find her on my own lol So that was okay I guess.
Anyway, where was I going with that story? Oh right. I don't know if it would have been better if my parents had encouraged my independence earlier. I realised that in the beginning of JC1 (and a little till now) I'm afraid to ask if I can go out. It was okay if it was with friends, but I was terrified that my mum would say no if I asked if I could go out with The Boob. I'm afraid of asking for things like this, and even if people say "if you never ask, it's always a no!" I'd rather have a definitive "no" than the possibility of a "yes" to be taken away from me when it is an actual "no". lol anyway, that's enough of the slightly-recent past, now is time for the future.
Continuing on with Thursday, my mum passed me her car keys to search the car for it, and when I went downstairs to do so, the car wasn't there. Turns out my sister took the car out to go to work, and when I asked her to look for my EZ-link card, she said it wasn't there :I
So today, I tried calling up the places that we went to: the bank, the optician, and the supermarket. I had been delaying calling them during the day, by distracting myself with Harvest Moon (IloveitokayitmightbeaproblembutlookwhatI'mdoingnowLOL) and I thought that calling during lunch wouldn't be a good time 'cos they probably wouldn't be in then. This was a bit of a doozy, because the question was where to ask first. I searched online for the phone numbers, so I called the optician first.
Second blunder of my journey: messing up when the optician place picked up my call. I thought I was just going to jump straight into the call and everything I needed to say would be said! Nope. I struggled trying to get past the beginning of the call. It was just a bunch of drawn-out "uuuhhhs" before I could properly get a word out. It was really awkward, I felt like what I said wasn't as coherent as I intended it to be. Anyway, they didn't find my EZ-link card there. Oh well.
Next I tried the supermarket. There were two phone numbers I tried, and neither picked up. Welp.
Last was the bank. This one was kinda tricky and more of a wild ride, because none of the numbers I found online were specific to the branch I went to. Sigh. I actually tried the general number, but it's the usual, automated, "press __" response, so that was useless for me. Then it came to me: call the shopping mall! I found the phone number of the shopping mall (on their facebook page apparently?) to ask for the specific number of the branch, which thankfully, I managed to get! And guess what? The lady who answers the phone calls? She was on leave.
I called the information counter again, and it was the same old man who picked up lol I told him that it was me again, and that the lady he directed me to was on leave, so he went to search for another number. He dug up two handphone numbers, and I was like, wat. H-handphone numbers? He said they belonged to one of the higher-ups in the branch itself, and I think it's kinda questionable if you're able to find a number that goes straight to a person-in-charge - through public means.
Anyway, I tried calling both, both resulted in a voicemail thing, which is understandable, and gladly it didn't really work. That being said though, one of the voicemail thingies said that they worked at so-and-so bank, so I assumed that it was a phone number specifically for work. I tried calling, and I got through! The person though, was overseas. I asked them if they worked at so-and-so bank, and they directed me to the call center. So, I guess it turns out that Information Counter Man brought me too close to the contacts in the bank LOL
I tried calling the supermarket after this uh, encounter, and I had some success. The lady on the other line asked me about when I lost my EZ-link card, and which counter I was at, and a contact number in the case they find it. Hopefully it's there if it isn't anywhere else. Maybe I'll have to personally search the car, and if it isn't there, I'll have to go down to the bank at the shopping mall. At least I remember the first name of the lady advising us on the account, and which room that was in, so there might be some hope there! Only thing though, is that if it's not at the supermarket, I hope they didn't go through so much effort to find it for me ;w;
So yeah, that's my path towards adulthood for you. There were other things, like having to fix a date and time with one of my dad's colleagues, so that I can look around the labs and see what it's like to be a research scientist. That part was kinda scary for me as well because, well, contacting adults and me having to adult. What fun it is to not be the Dancing Queen anymore.
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