The Fetal Diaries #43: What I missed out on and what they missed out on.

Posted by kristine on November 2nd, 2008 | Categorized as Blog | 155 views and 5 Comments

I have been thinking of writing about this topic for a few weeks now and haven’t had a chance since I first thought of it. Technically, I don’t have time to write this, because I’m writing my 3rd article for that newspaper (this article is on TCKS!) but I really miss writing Fetal Diaries..

Anyways.. So I realised a few weeks ago that I really missed out on that whole ‘typical North American childhood’. I came to this realisation when my English class went to the college’s theatre to watch this brand new play’s dress rehearsal, called Nevermore. It was a half-fictional, half-real play about Edgar Allan Poe’s life (I love him). To get there, we were picked up from school by yellow school buses. Yes, the typical North American school buses.

It was my first time to ride one of those. Seriously.

Well, okay, maybe I won’t be so alone here, since this IS a TCK site. But really, that was my first time to ride one. Not that it was all that great, but I am already sixteen, turning 17, and that was my first time. A friend didn’t want to believe me at first, when I told her. She asked how I went to school as a kid. So I went on for 2 minutes, explaning how I got to school in my previous schools. In the Philippines, my nanny and I would just walk to school. The school was, after all, a mere block away from our house. In the UAE, we had coaster buses that brought us to school. In Calgary, I used public transit because it was reliable there, and I did the same here, only it was less reliable.

“Wow, I missed out on a lot, now that I think of it…” I said, looking down on my shoes, smiling, eating a piece of my mousse cake. She laughed at that, and so did I.
“Okay, have you ever… eaten candy apples in a fair?” she asked.
“Do people really do that?” I chuckled.
“YES!” she said, and I blink at her, because I seriously thought that people never really did that. “How about… ride a pony at a farm?”
“Nope,”
“You really missed out!” she said, “Where were you and what were you doing?”

I took a moment to think about it, and then replied, “Well, I was… riding camels at fairs, sliding down grass meadows on cardboard boxes, learning Arabic, French and English all at the same time, feeding peanuts to elephants during a trip to Thailand, running around a desert at night, stealing a coin from a Buddha statue when we were in Malaysia… and all sorts of odd stuff…”

She laughed loudly at that and said I was weird, but really, that’s what I did as a kid. So really, I only missed out on North American stuff, but then I realise she also missed out MORE since she only had the typical North American childhood while I was globe-trotting and doing all sorts of crazy stuff.

* * *

Halloween came and the house was stocked up on candy and chocolates. Stocked up for those kids that walk around at night in costumes and ask for candy or whatever you have, yeah? Anyways, one of my Japanese exchange student friends told me that we should go trick or treating. I said that I don’t really have a costume. She then suggested I could wear her yukata, so I said sure, what the heck, why not?

Then I realised that I’ve never gone trick or treating before either.

I mean, sure, I’ve been dragged by my horse costumed brother once before, but never really dressed up and asked for some candy or whatever. My Japanese friend then said later on, while we were walking around, that she really wanted to do this now, before she goes back to Japan. They never really do it there, and said this was her last chance, before she turns 18. So I told her that I think it’s really just another North American thing, cause I never really did it either. Not a big thing in the Mid East and the Philippines.

We did Christmas carolling as kids in the Mid East though, and got money doing that. We used to give half of the money we earned to the church, I remember, and the remaining half, we’d distribute among ourselves. So I guess we also had those little things going on that they didn’t normally do in North America.

All I’m saying is, at first, I thought I missed out on a lot of stuff. But then again, if you think about it, I never really did. As a matter of fact, I experienced more exciting things.

I’d take watching a giraffe crossing our vehicle in a safari than candy apples in a fair anytime.

Born in the Philippines, then lived in Abu Dhabi, UAE for almost 4 years. Immigrated to Calgary, Canada (one of the most, if not THE most diverse city in Canada), but lives even farther north now (where it seems to be the opposite of Calgary).