the aged truth

Can anyone be more brutally frank when they haven't met you for a while (say more than a year) and upon meeting up, tell you without the slightest hesitation: 'You've aged!' If you didn't think someone look the same or become even more youthful after a long absence, you wouldn't go the other way and say he's aged right? I'm amused, maybe a little sad, but not at all offended. After all, the mirror that I see myself in everyday doesn't lie; work has made me a haggard man, sadly. But this incident stood out because these were the first words that came out of JL and it was even before I sat down after I arrived!

Yani was kinder. She said I look the same but funkier (because of my glasses). I think most people are so used to seeing me in stiff, boring work clothes so much so that they exclaim or get surprised at how I look when I'm in casual wear. Seriously, when you have to be dressed in proper shirt and pants for 5 days a week, you don't really have that many options to look different each day. You would still be wrapped in business shirt and pants no matter the details of the shirt or the accessories you use.

The other day, my (female) colleagues saw me for the first time in smart casual wear on Friday, and they joked that I have become an Ah-Boy. But I look no different that day compared to the past 30 days - except that I was in short sleeved shirt and jeans. But still, that's the kind of reaction I got. All I can say is that being called Ah Boy is better than to have aged.

Yours truly,
Ah Boy