The good thing about being young is that
you can change your mind a thousand times and say that you're in the process of finding yourself,
you can be spontaneous and say that you're only young once,
you can wear that colour and say that you're experimenting,
you can have beautiful dreams and say that one day it's all gonna come true,
you can set impossible goals and say that you're allowed to be idealistic,
you can daydream the afternoon away and say that you're building castles in the sky,
you can believe in fairies and prince charming and unicorns and say that you're just done being a child,
you can dabble a little in anything and everything and say that you'll be too old to try them later on.

******

 I still get teary eyed everytime the midwife hands the newborn to the parents and the mother always cries and the father beams like a lighthouse in the middle of the stormy sea. And every single time, I think to myself, 'Heck, it's nice to have a little girl/boy that is half of me and half of my soul mate and we get to live happily ever after.' And I start to build castles in the sky of little sticky pudgy fingers helping me to bake jam tarts on a Saturday afternoon, a safe warm nest of throw rugs at night with my little family by the fireplace, happy Sunday roast lunches with 3 generations at the table so lazy that it stretches to dinnertime, coming home to a chorus of "You're home!" and tight enthusiastic hugs.

And then, I remember that cute little Buddha-like baby I met in Samrong and the castles in the sky somehow fades quite a bit and they lose their rosy glow. Somehow, I feel a little selfish for having those little daydreams.

But hey, I'm still young and I'm allowed to change my mind, I'm allowed to be idealistic and set impossible goals and have beautiful dreams for myself at the same time because I can experiment and find myself.