The fault in our generation

I don't think that I have used the pun in the title a lot, but I am pretty sure that I have used it enough times for it to be old. 

In my time in Singapore I became close to an old friend of mine who used to join me in my adventures around Jakarta. Unfortunately, my first year in Jakarta was her last, and she left abruptly. In a sense I felt like I waited in Jakarta for the day that I would come back to Singapore (not to say that I didn't miss Jakarta). 

However when I came back she was a changed person. With a slight obsession with drinks, piercings and colouring her hair, it was like befriending a whole different person.  From the quiet conservative girl she was, she became one who was opened to trying new things (often the things undesired), and was adventurous to many different activities. With us being close again and by seeing pictures of her past, I managed to piece a rough idea of what happened in her time in Singapore. I realised that it was the crowd that she hung around her that has caused this change. In the time that teenagers were starting their sexual lives, developing a taste in alcohol and other certain activities, she hung around the wrong group. 

I am not wrong to say that this temptation was there for me as well in Indonesia. However, whether a blessing or a curse, I have developed a dislike for all kinds of alcohol due to its bitter nature as well as the effects of it when drunk in excess, something that people in Indonesia used to do a lot. My friends were all gamers and study freaks, and at that point in time I rather had that than alcoholic drunkards who only cared about sports and girls. 

My friends in Indonesia have also took a major turn for the worse. One of my good friends started partying and being very promiscuous with girls while I live here, and there was this one here in Singapore that changed when I was in Jakarta. I always wondered if anything would have changed had I been there to stop them. Maybe if invited one of my friends over for dinner instead of going to the club or creating a friendship group that we both could enjoy together when she first arrived in Singapore things would have been different. 

But alas I can't be at two places at once, and what's to say that something would have changed anyway? 

But life goes on, and what's done is done. All I can do now is hope that I can stop people from changing for the worse by being there for them when things go sour and they start being with the wrong people. However my favourite morality question is: how can you tell anyone what is right or wrong when something everything depends on perspective and interpretation?

That is the question.

How about you readers? Have any of you encountered the same situation? Don't hesitate to share it!

Shoving drinks into girls to get them drunk to do sexual activities with them was a thing that people do in Indonesia. Hopefully this tradition is also not something that is found in the rest of the world. 

Cheers,

Matthew Tan