MY STORY: BASIC TRAINING

December 3, 2007

Having a birthday is something of a headache when you’re a high school senior gal and you’ve got lots of friends, fans and admirers. It’s hard to appease and treat all of them if your dad has decided to economize this year so he could have some savings and budget for your debut a couple of years after. And so it has happened to me.

I just celebrated my 16^th birthday a few days ago. And boy, the greetings on my phone came as early as dawn. I just replied “thank you” to each one of them without any invitation to a treat-out, hoping that I could economize. I was wrong.

By 7:30 when I reached school, my two best friends Tina and Faye roared to the whole class that it was my birthday. Since it’s a Friday, all 20 of them were asking in chorus if a party’s gonna happen at my crib by evening to last till dawn. (I’m actually in boarding school so I stay in a dorm with absolutely no curfew at all.) I reluctantly told my classmates that no party’s gonna take place. Still, they kept pressuring me until I ended up treating 5 of my friends to a couple of pints of ice cream. Boy, it wasn’t cheap at all.

By lunch break, I bumped into my crush – Josh, the captain of the football team. He chatted with me and said he knew about my birthday from Tina. He said half-jokingly ‘twas supposed to be my obligation to treat him out. And so, I shelled out another 4 bucks for lunch. So much for savings!

At 4 p.m. during gym practice, my colleagues in the cheering squad also learned from my birthday from my class. In this small boarding school, news just flies so fast. All of them persuaded me to treat them out. I ended up having a small party at my house that evening. I could never find any cheap snack items and booze or even just discounts. The worst thing is I violated my dad’s basic rule – do not take alcohol while still in school. I ended up spending about $30 on that day culled from my meager allowance which my dad sends back home in Kansas .

I have caved in to the demands of my friends at my own expense. They psychologically played me out and made me feel bad for depriving them if I didn’t treat out during my birthday. The result – I don’t have any budget left for my thesis this Monday. And my conscience is still echoing my father’s reminder: do not take alcohol while still in school.

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