Officially Legal – A Birthday Eulogy

So I turned 18 today. It’s not a day I am fond of. Birthdays are portrayed as a day in a kid’s life where everything goes their way. They get what they want and they are happy. My father wasn’t exactly the nicest fellow, and I can only recall me grieving on my birthdays as I grew up. But now at 18, I have something to look forward to. I am an official adult. Legal to buy lottery tickets and cigarettes. (But I would rather invest in wiser things.) No more scolding or grounding. No more fighting or yelling. It’s going to be a great day. It’s been quite a trek from my birth in a shabby hospital in China to running my own online business. From birthdays 1-10, discipline and work ethic was beat and hollered into me. From birthdays 11-14, education and tolerance was schooled and grounded into me. From birthdays 15-17, freedom and resistance was fought and warred for. Now at 18, my liberty has been rightfully won. Now at 18, I have officially mastered the skills I needed.

Now at 18, the Teenage Investor dies.

So the Teenage Investor dies today. I don’t really mind. Call me heartless, but I have no attachment to him. His ignorance and incompetence irks me. His failures and flaws fatigues me. His weakness sickens me. But that’s because I am different from him. We are worlds apart. I am not ignorant nor incompetent. I am not a failure nor flawed. I am strong. I thank him for making me so.