I’m turning 18 tomorrow and I feel like time has flown by so fast. My parents are throwing me a huge party, my dad’s idea, of course, and it’s nonnegotiable because he wants his business partners and rich friends to show up with gifts. If you’ve seen my previous posts, you already know my dad has a bit of a greedy streak, lol.

    • SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip
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      19 hours ago

      Oh, wow, good for you! I guess I’m lucky that I was born before anti-vax was even a thing. In fact, my mother was one of the “polio pioneers,” the school children who served as the nationwide randomized, controlled trial for Salk’s vaccine, and her father had nearly died from polio, so I certainly got all my vaccines as a kid.

  • Oberyn@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Man don’t even fuckin remember wat happened my 18th birthday other than turned 18

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Seriously. Could not tell you. I assume there was cake but I have no idea. Why is that? I can remember my 5th but not my 18th.

  • elucubra@sopuli.xyz
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    15 hours ago

    In my extended family there is a tradition. The new adult receives 200 € and we all go to the Casino. The rest essentially drink and watch as the new adult loses all the money and learns a lesson. None of us gamble.

  • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
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    17 hours ago

    I did what I do on most of my birthdays: went to a movie with friends. It was my first year in university abd I grew up in a small town, so that day was my first time riding a bus

  • NorthWestWind@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Comic: nothing's changed

    Every birthday I ask for pizza. It was largely the same.

    In HK, being 18 almost always means you are studying for HKDSE, basically the biggest and most important exam of a Hongkonger’s life. I got a few blessings from my family lol.

    • Is HK test the same as GaoKao?

      Lol funny that I didn’t even have to take the SAT/ACT (US Standarized Tests) to get accepted to a state college because of COVID changed the requirements.

      But then I have depression and had to withdraw 🙃

      Now I have self esteen issues.

      If I was still in mainland, I would’ve felt even worse because you know how much education is valued. The competition is so much worse, labor protection is horrible. 1.4 billion people, ugh cant even breathe in that air (literally and figuratively).

      I feel like the US is more like relaxed when it comes to stuff like college, I think I can re-enroll later once I get my depression fixed. I think in China, they just don’t ever let you do college again once you’re past the normal age for college. Also mental health is sooo stigmitized…

      Anyways, the pizza thing… is that like very special?

      Cuz from my perspective, that’s just an average dinner here in the US lolol.

      I mean I guess if things are uncommon, it becomes special.

      I have faint memories of being in McDonalds in Guangzhou… I think those always felt special… I mean I guess its cuz its foreign and its full of 味精… felt like a past life ngl, was so long ago.

      When I first arrive in the US, I went to McDonalds a lot, its like a treat basically, now those stuff taste so bad (inflation maybe? lower quality stuff?), I just go to Chinese restaurant sometimes instead lol

      Every time I see your comment, I just wonder like “what would my life have been life if I never emigrated” like the “alternate timeline” type of thing… yea I overthinkg life too much sometimes.

      You know, I never technically even graduated highschool, I had fight school where a 鬼佬 kid instigated a fight and I got in trouble when I was 17, so I ended up hating school. So in the US, there are theses things called the “GED” where like you can just take these tests in Math Reading Writing Science and get school done with. My GED test scores are better then my GPA in school (Grade Point Average)

      School in Philly suck so much… so much 種族歧視.

      My mom had to move us away from NYC. NYC was so memorable. Literally like 1/4 to 1/2 of the class is Asian, a lot of Cantonese speakers, a few occasional Mandarin speakers too, so I felt more comfortable there… I mean bullying still exists, but at least I never was in a situation where I felt like was the only Asian kid in the room.

      • NorthWestWind@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        It’s basically Gao Kao. Not as bad as it because we still have multiple paths to reach university. If one fails the HKDSE, they can take an associate degree program for 1 or 2 years and re-enroll into a major degree program. It’s not the end of the world. It just takes more time and money.

        Pizza is expensive in Hong Kong because it’s a foreign thing and my dad’s side doesn’t particularly like cheese so we rarely have it. It’s also generally considered unhealthy here.

  • village604@adultswim.fan
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    22 hours ago

    I got to wait 30 minutes until midnight so I could buy fuel system cleaner and a sharpie. Walmart can be silly.

    When I turned 21 I got a liquor store to break the law and stay open late to sell me my first legal bottle of scotch at midnight (my roommate was good friends with the owner)

  • bizarroland@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    All of my friends got arrested and I was homeless, so I just slept in my truck all day.

    As you can tell people love me at parties.

  • STUNT_GRANNY@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    I just… did my own thing, by myself. Had my own car, a tank of gas, and some cash in my wallet. No concrete plans when I woke up that morning.

    I ended up spending most of my 18th birthday at the zoo, just wandering around at my own pace. Whenever my folks would take me before that point, we’d always end up trying to speedrun the whole place, spending no more than a minute at each exhibit, if we’d stop at all. And without spending a single cent on anything other than admission.

    I spent two hours just hanging out in the zoo’s walk-in aviary, feeding seed sticks and nectar cups to parrots. Best birthday ever.

  • Ah, I will turn 18 soon too :^). My parents prolly aint throw a huge or expensive party for me. Just go 2 a relative w/ big house and call a few friends after school maybe. I want a blue BFDI (Battle For Dream Island - a cartoon on web which Im grown up w/) cake with some stuff like maybe getting some useful things 4 my pet rock (yes I have a huge “breed” pet rock) and get myself a bike I wanted for years or an ugly sweater, BFDI Woody (the char from same cartoon) plush maybe. I want that plush since it is out and loving the character since late 2010’s.

    Anyways, I dont think much stuff will be changed really. Prolly will have a legal right to drink, have a job, drive or smth. And methinks I cant neither afford any one or my mentally ill ass prolly will commit some crimes or go die while being drunk so Id rather to not drink. And the best thing after 18s prolly getting into a some meh kind of an university.