Admit it, everyone wants to stay young. Everyone wants to look georgeous, even when s/he is old and almost dies.
One thing that I and Barb Shreve notice in the TV commercials and in American point of view is that people here wants to stay young and when the young look fades away, then little respect is given to you. The idea of being young is so strong that many techniques of making you look young are invented. And that is reflected in TV commercials: botox, facelift, plastic surgery, fitness equipments. Being old is being doomed from the social world. Having wrinkles in your face is a shame. You must and you have to put efforts on staying young.
I guess this is different in Indonesia. When you're old, the more respect you get. Being old means being wiser, being more knowledgeable. Respect the elders, that's the motto. And when you're old and you don't act adult-like with dignity and adult image, you're not respected. In my case, with my 30 birthday is coming, people will expect me to behave not like teenagers. I should not like the music hits, I should not watch MTV, I should not wear hipster jeans, I should not laugh carefree, I should not dress like the youngsters, I should not have a band. Simply put, I should behave according to my age. That means, I should talk with full dignity, retaining my image as an adult, I should listen adult music. And guess what: my friends always think that I'm still college students and not a mom of 4 years old boy. Yudi sometimes criticizes me of behaving not of my age and it gets me irritated sometimes.
What's wrong with being young? What's wrong with singing in a rock band? I'm not ready yet to give up the fun part of being young. I'm even proud of my ability to connect with the young because I believe that being a professor of college-age people means that I have to be able to connect with them.
Later, probably when I'm 50 something then I will reconsider my behavior. But not now, seriously not now...
