The Outspoken Taco

I am soon going to be eighteen; the year of freedom and liberation, independence and epiphanies, regretful experiences and learnings. It's THAT year. Except–  I already had all of that and I'm sure I will continue to. What do people love so much about becoming eighteen?  I was talking to my friend last night and coincidentally, our birthdays are around the same time. We knew if things got better, we'd reserve ourselves to a full day of foolproof fun – the kind with yellow flowers, spontaneity, lots of food, tattoos and screaming, books and the vintage smell of clustered library hallways. All of these up-in-the-air plans struck something in me. Is it all I want? Do I not yearn for expensive gifts anymore? The answer is yes and no. I kept asking myself, trying to conjure something materialistic that I can ask for, be grateful and momentarily happy towards; something that would light excitement for the coming days. But really, I seem to have gotten nowhere. I have everything, ...

Some time ago, Instagram (most likely plagiarised from TikTok) brought onto itself a new trend – How Did I Go From This To This Challenge. It spread like wildfire this trend and the Gen Z way to say it is a  glow up . Influencers, vloggers and content creators who make Reels and TikToks skillfully depicted a difference between their prepubescent chub and their sunkissed selves now. It determines the positive role puberty has played on their jawline, face, height, waist, stomach and every party of your body that hasn't been objectified before. When I saw these thirty-second videos, I wanted to (so badly) be one of them and be proud of how I looked right now. But I knew I couldn't because I thought I hadn't glowed up yet. You see, the figure, the hair, the clothes, they all contributed to a glow up. And when you'd see those videos and you'd see the men and women now, you'd want to be it, too. Sometimes, I thought to myself,  how did you go from this to this? Do yo...

For some time now, I've been wondering about the person I'd be if I had a best friend. You know, the kind who is your forever friend, your person. I wonder if the six-year-old #BFF trend and its lyrical captions could sustain the idea of promises and permanence, eternity and emotional stability, perhaps even dependency and growth. Although it was a stretched millennial trend and thoroughly annoyed most of us, I think there was something more to it.  This trend was like the other waves in the ocean – it created a storm, leapt fiercely at our hashtagging capabilities and with time, became a calmer ripple that restored the equilibrium within the watercourse before a newly-stirred, ferocious storm grew again and the social media world was hit by a different trend with perhaps the same duration of attention. I don't blame us for our short attention span. After all, we are the vagabond-kind; the dumpers and rarely the dumpees of trends. With modern attainment and teenage mood swi...