I don't want your life

"Because I don't want your life. It isn't good enough. "

That's exactly what I would say tonight when nosy distant relatives ask me why I'm not married or haven't popped the 2.5 kids.

With the big ass reunion dinner pending, I'm dreading to rekindle any vague family relations from mom's side of the family. Distant relatives I don't know well but whose kids of similar age as I, have been objects of comparison since time immemorial.

Being vertically challenged all my life, it was annoying to say the least when I was lined up with other kids back to back to compare height. Never mind the blow on the confidence. Then came the game of school results comparo, and I didn't fare well either.

The rest of the kids, of course welcomed this comparing game with a boost in their feel good department as reward. So much so that those little evil drones would scream "Let's compare height!!" the moment we meet when even the blind could tell that I'm at the losing end. Not fun. 

As a kid, I wouldn't have thought that genetics issue plays a big part in how tall I'd grow, and neither did I consider the fact that I went to an elite school for the gifted (or rich) and that scoring a "C" there would mean an "A" in other schools. That took me years to realize and even more years to shake off that sense of inferiority.

Adults are so cruel to subject their kids to this kind of rubbish.

To say that I'm not looking forward to tonight would be an understatement, especially when all of those kids have all blossomed into real adults. You know that type of real adults? Married with 2.5 kids type with a tiny apartment and second hand Toyota Camry? Yes, those.  Again, I'm the odd one out and the whole shebang of "Do you have a boyfriend?", "When are you getting married?" or "You should really have kids soon!" ensued. Not fun again.

Society punishes those who don't conform but tonight I shall speak my mind to live up to my reputation as the odd one out. The conformists play nice, stay polite and smile. The odd one out will tell them as it is: "I don't want your life because it's boring. Marriage is redundant. Divorce is messy. Kids are such burden. I want to live life the way I want and it's quite different from yours because yours is frankly, underwhelming. That's why I'm not married with 2.5 kids."

So yes, the odd one out has grown up to not let conformists bully her anymore. So there, I don't want your life.