Remember how we’d always talk about having a sleepover while at school? Remember how it never manages to happen? Well, this time, it’s finally happening. Yasmin has promised to show me a good time this weekend… whatever that means.

So, in my copious spare time, I’ve been talking and thinking about societal expectations. Remember the men I spoke of in my last post? You look at them, and think, “I can’t believe they would marry / have children / become chained to their mortgages,” at least not yet. But they are. I see it everywhere.

Do they watch their birthdays pass by and they say to themselves, “Take a deep breath, and just do it.” Next thing you know, it’s about the ring, the wife, the house, the children and they’re yearning for the days when they were young and had fun. But for what? Because society expects them to? Because their family expects it of them? Because their rebellious sibling chose the alternative lifestyle and there has to be at least one “normal” child in the family?

Is this how it will be for us? Will we stifle our passion and ignore the tug in our hearts in order to satisfy what we think others expect from us? I’m not sure I’m quite old enough for that yet.