Of Playing Pool and Sitting on Laps

Progress at work. Blog being updated.

Well, here it is. The long-awaited post that people who have stumbled upon this blog have been asking for. The thing is that I set out to make this a thinking person's blog and I only post an entry when I ponder over certain issues. I guess you guys, our loyal supporters (however many there are), are in luck. I have some issues which you guys might wanna ponder over.

This event occured about 3 weeks ago. I was playing pool with the usual gang: Secondary and JC ODAC friends. As usual, most of us were making a fool out of ourselves: tripping over our cues, hitting the cue ball off the table and missing the cue ball entirely. (I just realised that I have digressed even before starting.)

The issue here is not our very poor pool skills. It was the behaviour of the teens playing on the table next to ours. If you consider them teens. They looked more like 12 year old kids. Actually, I was never good at telling people's ages just by looking at them. However, for the purposes of this post, and for dramatic effect, let us just assume that they're not much older than 12 year olds.

There were 3 guys and 3 girls taking turns to play. They were taking turns to play and they sat at the benches next to the table while awaiting their turn. One particular girl, however, was sitting on the lap of a particular guy and had her arms around his neck. I don't really have any objections to public displays of affection (another blog post, perhaps?), but I was disturbed by what I saw.

The first thought that came to my mind was "Do they even know what they're doing?" They looked like 12 year old kids! I don't think anyone just at the cusp of puberty knows what a relationship entails. (Forgive any exaggerations on my part.) Could they perhaps go into a relationship just because they think it's cool? Do they know the repercussions of any action they make in the relationship? Will they be able to balance both the relationship and their studies? Do they know how to handle any problems in the relationship? Will they be emotionally ready for a break-up?

Then it dawned on me. Perhaps I was disapproving of their behaviour just because I have never been in one myself. Perhaps I was just jealous. If I had been in a relationship back in secondary school, would I also have done the same? I quickly dismissed the thought: I was such an introvert back in secondary school, I didn't even dare talk to a girl! What relationship? Rubbish! Still, it didn't hurt thinking about it. Will I want a girl to do the same if I was in a relationship today? I know I'm much more of a "internal" person, as opposed to an "external/physical" one. I'd rather spend time chatting about hypothesis testing than have her breathe down my neck. Just a personal opinion. Couples out there, no offence, ya?

So, the natural progression of thoughts came to this: What right do I have to care how the kids spend their lives? I'm just another human being, not some god. Not even a higher-level human being. If they want to have a relationship, I have no say in it. (I don't think blogging about it is wrong. Or is it?)

I asked a friend over this issue. The friend laughed it off. Friend thinks I'm too conservative. Well, perhaps I am. But I guess I like being conservative. Ultimately, I'm happy that I've never been in a relationship thus far. I don't feel any less human just because of that one fact. Neither do I feel any less human just because I trip over my own cue. -Jimmy