Rendezvous
17 July 09 : 09.49 AM
I tell her I'm working now and her reply is one full of incredulity. Vicki? Working? "Shocking!" This is a friend that's part of a group I sorta grew up with. Spent our formative early to mid-teen years doing shit stupid things like underaged clubbing and copious alcohol and skipping school. Friends that I thought would never really drift apart in spite of distance.
Whether it was a joke or not (because I'm sure she didn't mean it condescendingly), it told me two things:
1. To them, I'm still that spoilt brat of a child who takes cabs everywhere, doesn't know how to take a bus, shops exclusively at designer stores and ultimately, proud and elitist. Can't say they didn't have a point (The other night when I met Kenneth, I had told him, I'm taking a bus and he laughed out loud.)
2. The truth is, perhaps they've been far too removed from my life to understand anything about me now. The fact is that my dad has even told Helme that he will never buy us a car (although he did have title deeds to houses in our names...) proves I'm not going to be splurged on any how, and more tangibly, I don't take a single cent from my parents. Not since I was 18.
And for all the designer stuff I carry and all the envy old gossips about how filthy rich my family is has created, the only thing that has ever made me feel proud of myself is that I gained financial independence to take a whole lot of burden off my parents' back. Much like a fish pulled outta water and actually thriving.
(Although, if you think I've cleaned up well, you haven't met my sister. A girl who at 13 made a fuss and got angry when my mom didn't want to get her a $400 skirt from Club21. Mom bought the skirt finally, by the way. And I cannot possibly be any more proud of her that she's so mature and responsible now like no other 24 year old. 24 with her own business, her own house, own car, 2 children and well, 2 domestic helps. There is no one quite like her.)