aging gracefully?

In a couple of years time I'll be hitting the big 30 and I look back and wonder how has my growth been. Off course maturity wise, I've aged accordingly or so I think but I've often wonder in the last 27 years, have I been aging gracefully? So, I thought I take a small journey backmemory lane and see how I've been aging and the numerous phase I've been through.

I was born on 15th January 1979. Sorry, I couldn't find a picture of myself when I was a baby so I'll start off in the year 1981, when I was a innocent 2 year old.

I was told I was ugly as a baby and I honestly can't recall how I looked like when I was a baby, but I didn't looked too bad as a 2 year old. At this phase in my life I was still living the normal 2 year old life, wearing 2 year old clothing. When I turned 5, a new phase I encountered, it was called the superhero phase, I would not leave the house unless I was wearing something that resembled a superhero. I remember having a full superman, spiderman and batman suit. I think my parents burnt those pictures away as I could not find any. The only picture I could find was this and this was considered very mild.

Than I entered the phase where I only wanted to look like my dad. You see, my dad has been my hero since I was a kid, so it was a transition of dressing like superhero to a local here which was my dad.

Me, seen here carefully buttoning up my first ever tailor made batik. My dad will always have extra batik cloth and he'll always use that left over to make a batik for me, he was so proud to have a "mini-me"

Me, like any other 6 year old would do.. standing tall to make his dad feel proud.

Things took a dive when I hit about 7 or 8 years old. I think my sis always wanted a baby sister and not a baby brother. So, I found myself wanting to make my sister happy and thus, I ended up wearing girl's clothing. A real-life Barby doll for my sis to play with.

Well, that more or less sums up the phases I went through in my childhood. Entering into my teenage hood, where I first discovered the meaning of wearing spectacles. Being a first timer to wearing specs, I wasn't sure what was the fashion than so I ended up with the good old Lucky Strike glasses which seems to be the in-thing now again.

I can't recall anything much happening in my teenage life either than I hormones started to act up and my eyes started to look at girls. I do recall, having railway lines on my teeth though. I recalled it was quite a smooth and enjoyable experience. I always enjoyed going to the orthodontist because she was hot and the nurse that took care of me was hot too. But, teenage life was a bliss, just up to some mischief here and there. I remember my home-fellowship leader calling me "banyak-kuat" translated to Cantonese means a lot of bones. I recall, the slumber parties we guys had and doing poser pics thinking were some macho "hip-hop" gangs-ta paradise.

I guess, it was in College/Uni that I started to look good. Why do I say that? Well in high-school never had a girl interested in me, multiple rejections from the girls and even Cheryl and Sue Ann said "Thank God U grew up". College/uni, had some girls interested in me and having my first relationship would probably mean that my looks began to have found favour with members of the opposite sex or maybe they had to look deep deep deep inside my heart.

I tried to have longer hair in my uni days. The picture above was me trying to spot that Korean, HK superstar look but obviously failing in the process. I think I was getting ready for The Annual International Ball when I was in Brisbane.

I recall, my body was at its best when I was in Uni. I played amateur league soccer than, so I guess the training and weekend matches helped. As you can see above, I had abs than. I never had a tondi when I was younger. I guess that key word here is younger. It was in Uni too that I found out that I had a brain or else I wouldn't have ended up wearing this robe.

Going back this memory lane, it sure has shown me that God's hands has been upon my life since I was a baby. When you see a tombstone, it usually has something like this engraved on it "Mark Tan, 1979-2040". I'll always look at the " - ", the small little dash is the one that shows the journey that one has had. And I thank God for the journey so far, lots of ups and downs, lots of bumps and lots of hurts and lots of joyful memory and lots fun. I truly thank God that he has brought me from

THIS

TO THIS

So, I wonder...... have I been aging gracefully or not???