Life Culture Shock
Three Skaters
Originally uploaded by peter bowers.
I’m not a big fan of busy months, and the end of the year is always particularly busy. I had a short work trip a few weeks ago up to Penang, and a few weekends of Raya and Deepavali open house trips, with a dash of evenings with friends and family… which is hardly anything to shout about, actually.
In the right frame of mind, that’s what anyone would profess to be typical of the average Malaysian lifestyle… except that I grew up thinking that computer games might be my best friends, and that software developers live in caves with fat internet connections.
So instead of living my life out of a large closet that is half occupied by computer parts and a large entertainment system, I actually now am living a typical life of a urbanite husband, in a relatively modest apartment, with domestic and social commitments of the norm… kind of like living a life out of a postcard.
Thus, I am a little misled, and partly enlightened as to why my body feels so messed up recently… which could be easily summed up in two words: culture shock.
The thing is, I don’t exactly know what is best. Am I really experiencing a partly coveted act of settling down, or am I missing out on something I really wanted years ago?
Looking inwards, I do admit some things in my life are atypical - for one, I don’t have and I don’t want TV. I also don’t listen to radio. I’m also not a very scheduled person. My house, after almost a year, is still partly in boxes, and the lightbulbs that blew 5 months ago are still screwed tight in their grooves.
It’s like different parts of me are exchanging views on what to keep and throw away, bit by bit, without ever seeking my consent. My stomach probably can’t stand what my mind makes up to cook. My hands want the keyboard more than my skin wants a vacuumed hallway.
And they’re always bickering behind my back, tossing me back and forth between a sea of options that never quite existed before I turned 23… which, by the way, was the year I stopped counting my age altogether. I think I’m late twenties now, and it’s probably going to get fuzzier from here.
It doesn’t help that I’ve picked up new hobbies along the way, and as they say, boys have toys and men have bigger toys.
I find that my brain is attempting to stage a coup and is trying to make the major decisions now - and it mostly consists of taking stock of what I have right now, and making the best of it. I think that’s a good thing. It’s kind of like giving all my other body parts a holiday, while my brain goes to work. And when they all come back, everyone’s got something to do instead of arguing with each other all the time.
Categorized as life