11/12/2012

Remains Of My 25th Birthday

The Remains of the DayThe Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Perhaps then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so much, that I should adopt a more postive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day."

I felt betrayed. I trusted Ishiguro for him to give me an entertaining read. Now what's left me is life questions that I believe I should know the answers by now. Why Ishiguro, WHY BOMBARD ME WITH SELF-REFLECTIONS?

IT ALL STARTED on a book discussion. We are to read this great work that won the Booker Prize. Since this is my first book by Ishiguro (I watched Never Let Me Go and the film is amazing - the subtlety, the mood, the sadness and seriousness of filmography; but I haven't had the chance to read it), I have little expectations. Little, considering that the plot is about an English Butler named Stevens with an American master named Mr. Farraday, the owner of the Darlington Hall - asking him to do a motoring job and visit his old colleague Miss Kenton, since her letter told him of her past experiences and her sentiments in her years of service to the old manor.

AND SO IT GOES.

I consider this one of the most precious reads in my list. It may not bring tears to my eyes (as a part of long list of matronic reads); it may not entertain and bring my dream-man into life (duh, the character is, I daresay, way beyond my league) but it reflects some of the paradoxes in life and of the crossroads that we face, however young we are, both in our mind and in our spirit.

In turning points of our lives, there are things to give up and things to hold on to. But do we have to compromise? Why do we have to let go of those things - some that may not be precious to us in one point, but will be in a future time. Why can't we achieve the best of both worlds? Does a compromise have to be that sacrificial?

My mum and dad told me that at one point in our lives, we are building our own persona, and we may or may not need reinforcements, the full discretion of the grander design is to each his own.

I am young. And I am at the crossroads. I may have "over-friendliness" and "high-assertiveness" issues, but this is who I am, and this is how I use my "skills" to win people, or lose some. In this turning point, you can mock me or give me tidbits of advice, but this doesn't stop me for molding into someone I really learn to love. After all,
you are just an audience
, and I am the master of my own.

And that, my friend, is how I deal with the remaining days of my 25th year in this earth - aka the quarter-life-crisis.

(Written days before my 26th birthday, 12 nov 2012 11:15PM MLA)



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2 komento:

  1. Happy Birthday in advance! And yeah, quarter-life crisis may extend up to the 28th year, just in time for the Saturn Return. :)

    TumugonBurahin
  2. Kaya pala may mga emo-lapses pa rin ako. And here I thought that Quarter-life-crises only happen on your 25th year. hahaha! :))

    TumugonBurahin