Party Like it's 1999
I grew up pretty close to my first cousins on my mom's side. We were 10 back then with 6 of those cousins being me and my siblings so we contributed a lot. But now that we're older, almost none of us are left in Manila and luckily, a majority of us found our way to Singapore 40% of cousins, with 30% in the US (still my siblings) and 20% back in Manila.
When we were a lot younger, we'd have these epic sleepovers that would have all 10 cousins lying side by side on mats sprawled out on my grandma's living room floor. No one actually wanted to sleep and everyone was trying hardest to stay up -- cause that was cool. The longer you stayed up, the cooler you were.
I remember my eldest cousin, Niko would create these crazy stories that were so convoluted and amazing that we really couldn't sleep even if we wanted to. It was a struggle to get us dozing off.
But out of the 10 cousins, there were of course factions and I was the youngest member of the four girls and I felt very cool to be part of the older girls. We'd talk about crushes and boys and more crushes and boys and it just felt nice to be included with the older kids.
It had been a while since a lot of us were in the same place at the same time especially with my cousin Nikki moving to Norway and starting her family there. So when I got the chance to go home for a long weekend and see my cousins and nephew, how could I resist? It was such a good weekend, just trying to entertain my godson/nephew and reaffirming that being a mom is a higher calling I am not heeding at all.
This time around though, we had wine and I brought out my tarot cards to unprofessionally give everyone their 2018 outlooks. We got manicures and pedicures and ate and drank and ate some more. And unlike before, everyone took naps -- lots of them and slept as early as we could when we could.
But it was also nice to be able to just hang with my cousins. Social media and technology has allowed us to keep in touch as much as we could but nothing beats an old school sleepover even if no one stayed up as late as we used to.
Speaking of old school things, back in 2001, I had purchased (or my dad had kindly bought for me) the YM Girlz Rule Page-a-Day Stickies Calendar for 2001. I remember we had bought something similar but for boys for a friend's birthday and I had seen this and it felt like such a cool thing to have.
Of course, because I was a strange teenager, I didn't use it that year. And instead, kept it in minted condition in a box of all the cool things I had -- among which are diaries from grade 1 and every year thereafter -- most of which I have not looked back on for decades.
I could have used it in 2007 -- a mere 6 years later but I had missed that year and so it took another 11 years since 2007 for me to dig it up and finally use it. And so 2018 is the next year where the dates/days from 2001 correspond and using it thus far has been an absolute laugh.
“From the back of the box: Each day brings you all the spirit, fun and fab advice you love in YM — in portable form!”
It would have been pretty neat to use this back when I was 14 years old but now that I'm 30 and reading the daily tips YM doled out back in 2001 both make me nostalgic and bring so much joy. I remember being very excited to visit my cousin Jeannie because she had an epic stash of magazines (YM, Teen Vogue, Teen People, Entertainment Weekly and Seventeen among others). And when I had a bigger allowance, I saved up to buy Seventeen monthly for four years until I turned 17.
It's funny to read the guy tips now but I might actually try some of them out just because I'm actually trying to date now -- these would not have been applicable to 14-17 year old me as the guys I liked were either celebrities or teenage boys who did not know I existed. And having a boyfriend back then would have been unthinkable! What about my studies!?!
Everyday in January has so far been lots of flirting tips and some self-confidence boosters and if I can trust the blurb from the back of the box: "each day brings you all the spirit, fun and fab advice you love in YM -- in portable form!" Well isn't that something to look forward to.
