Truth Beyond Perceptions

My senior high school ID with a picture of an 11-year-old me. Blah…

At the beginning of a new academic term in senior high school, we had to submit current passport-sized pictures of ourselves to our class adviser as a requirement for our school IDs. Most of my classmates had to go to a photo studio just because their faces don’t look the same as they were, considering the fact that I had been with them for over seven years. There were only a few who didn’t bother to have their pictures taken at all, and I happened to be one of them.

In high school, I was usually described by my classmates and teachers as a “nene“  (little girl) because my facial attributes didn’t exactly correspond to my biological age. During that time, it was a big deal for my self-esteem since I noticed that many of my classmates have grown beautiful/handsome/different while I looked…blah. Well, you get the idea.

But as I’ve gotten older, I realized that being younger than my real age has its own pros.

1.) You can use your old ID pictures as long as your current hairstyle and facial features are physically the same as shown on those pictures. After we submitted our ID pictures to our class adviser, she inspected each of them carefully, which is something that I already expected because she’s very particular when it comes to details. Because the picture that I submitted was the same one that I submitted back in sixth grade for my ID and since she was also my teacher during that time, I was nervous that she might remember that picture and would tell me to get a current one. One of my classmates wasn’t lucky because he had a small mustache, but his picture didn’t. On the other hand, I passed. =P

2.) Some people wouldn’t question you about your age even though you’re already beyond the age limit. There were situations wherein children below 12-years-old were allowed to go in particular areas for free, while for children who were beyond that age and for adults, you had to pay a fee in order to get in. Since I looked like an 11-year-old back in high school, my parents were able to have 2 free entrance tickets instead of 1. 

3.) You can still watch cartoons no matter how weird other people think it may be. I still watch anime and other cartoons regardless of how old I may be. My dad still thinks that it’s weird for an “adult” like me to be interested in that kind of thing, whereas other people don’t find it weird since I can easily blend in with the young crowd. 

1.) You might have self-esteem issues. I admit, it kept bothering me that many of my classmates’ facial features became different to the point that they don’t even look like children anymore back in high school, whereas I still looked the same. I mean, sure I already went through puberty and stuff like that, but I wanted to at least look a bit different, or look more like a woman, you know?

2.) Some people wouldn’t take you seriously because you don’t look like your biological age. I was going to watch a movie with a friend at her house. Her older brother stated that it was rated PG-18, I wasn’t allowed to watch it because I was 15-years-old when in fact, I was really 19. 

About these ads