Patri Lily

A writer, a music composer, a gamer and such.🇻🇳 Vietnamese 🇻🇳Born in 2004.
She/her.Fiction/short story name: Is that maturity?
-Patri Lily: the author of this fiction/short story-Written on: 2024.11.17Taken from: my WIP book

(Image generated by ChatGPT and for illustrative purposes only)

Is that maturity?

I would like to tell you an example story of one of the typical, common occurrences related to age and maturity that are happening to many people around the world. In this story, I would like to use the English tenses of past simple and present simple to describe what "happened", despite the fact that this is an imaginary one. What I mean here is that while other related (though somewhat irrelevant) incidents happened to me, I would like to specifically use this story to represent these incidents. Also, please note that I will shift to the informal tone in this sub-part. Please note that this story and the conversations in it are disjointed at a minor level, as for me, the features that contribute to the overall disjointedness of the story as a whole are to make it human-like.If you are wondering about the narrator’s outfit in the story below, it is a typical high school girl outfit with a dark blue skirt (in this story, the female high school uniform is not the conventional Vietnamese white ao dai for typical high school girls in the country). At the time of writing this, I find the style of schoolcore and some kinds of casual clothing much more calm and peaceful than some of the professional, "age-appropriate" or perhaps dynamic outfits out there.One day, I went from Hanoi to a random rural Vietnamese province to enjoy the breeze there. When I finally arrived at the province of my destination, I decided to sit somewhere I felt most comfortable with. After looking for somewhere to ease my mind, I finally chose a suitable place for myself at that moment: a 'tra da' stand near a high school.I see some students going in and out of the school as all the classes there are dismissed somewhere around 4:30 PM. When I am just enjoying the serene landscape of my surroundings at the moment, some 12th grade students suddenly approach me, thinking I was just one random 12th grade student like them, and ask me a few questions. I reply calmly and then we have a talk together.
- Why are you here, and what are you doing?
- I'm just enjoying the tranquillity of the atmosphere in this rural area.
- Oh, nice! But why weren't you in any of our classes? You are supposed to be studying for the upcoming college entrance exam!
- Um, what? I've been out of high school for over 2 years, and I'm 20 years old now.
- Oooooh. Why are you wearing this outfit then? You really look like a typical female high school senior despite your outfit looking slightly different from ours.
- Oh, about that, I wanted to get a feeling of my old self chilling at a stand of drinks together with a schoolcore atmosphere. Although my high school years were not that great compared to that of many other students (I mean I was actually a target of several bullies back then), I wanted to remind myself of the good parts of that.
- Can you tell us a bit about your experience and life in general after high school?
- When you get out of high school, you will enter another stage of life. In that stage, if you are already mostly mature and open-minded in handling and going through different social dynamics, you will mostly be fine; however, if you are not, I think you seriously should prepare yourself for the four letters of L I F E. Your high school years, whether great or not, can be the foundation of your future years of living in this world.
- Mm-hmm.
- I mean you do not have to really appreciate your past, you just need to be able to remember that you used to be here. Also, your future life experiences will be unique to each of you and may be a lot different from that of others, so you should not listen to every single thing other people say about you because they could just be fallacious to their own selves sometimes.
- Mm, I see.
- To add to that, please try not to forcefully impose your views and your life experiences onto others, as something is like that to you does not mean it is the same to other individuals. What I said may not be directly related to your question, but I would say that you should bear in mind the information I have just shared.
- Ooooh, thank you for sharing your experience! Also, we would like to apologise because earlier we thought you were just a typical high school student like us. Again, sorry 'elder sister'!After the talk, they go home.I continue my session of just casually sitting there and doing nothing, then, a female teacher of the school comes to the 'tra da' stand to also chill just like what I am doing. Again, I have another talk, but this time with that teacher rather than the school's students. That teacher, in my eyes, looks slightly older than 30 years old.
- Which high school are you studying at?
- I am not in high school anymore. I wear this outfit because I just feel like it.
- How old are you then? Do you work or study?
- I'm 20, and I'm currently in university. I think perhaps I am going to be a teacher or a lecturer in the future, though I am still uncertain about my own future. Right now I am chilling here to ease myself after handling a large portion of pressure related to work and my studies.
- Oh. When you are just a typical wanderer like who you are now, this outfit is mostly fine. However, when you enter a professional setting as a teacher or lecturer, you have to conform to certain unspoken norms of formality, including clothing-related choices. In that case, from my experience, you may have to wear ao dai of any type, or some kind of workplace clothing like, first, a pencil skirt or a pair of formal trousers together with a suit vest, or second, a typical nine-to-five dress.
- Ooooh.
- Your current outfit looks formal enough as a student, but it might be a bit too casual for a teacher to wear in my view. Plus, in our society, teachers are strictly expected to be authoritative, professional and mature whenever they perform their job in a classroom, and they should not blend too much into the "innocent" world of their students. You do not want to blur the line between students and teachers in a school setting right?
- Yeah, I know that. These are the norms constructed by society on the basis of suitability. When someone wears a student uniform like this as a teacher in a classroom setting, especially in schools where clear distinctions between teachers and students are emphasised, they might be unintentionally getting rid of their own teacher rights and authority over their students. This, for some, can create confusion among students and other teachers.
- Yeah, that’s what I mean.
- Um, yeah, what you said is basically the norms we, as teachers, have to follow to maintain the harmony of the field of teaching and our image as mature individuals. Now, can I deviate a slight bit from the topic by talking about an aspect of us outside the formal settings we've just had a talk about?
- Okay, go ahead, I don't have a problem with that.
- Outside the school setting, teachers and students are just normal people living their lives in this world. I would say that many of us do want and need peace and personal freedom, just like our students. In a school setting, we, and these students as well, all have to put on our own masks to fit ourselves in, this is perhaps to maximise the efficiency of learning/studying and to maintain the harmony of our profession and the setting.
- Yeah, right.
- However, we all are human beings too, and we do not have to, and perhaps are not able to, put on our masks of "social maturity" all the time without putting them down for even a millisecond. We have personal feelings and other aspects of human nature too, and we need occasional breaks to get our energy up in order to continue contributing to society and especially our country.
- I completely agree with you there. Despite that, there are paradoxical dictators, both online and offline, who have been stressing me and many other colleagues of mine so much whenever we take breaks from our work. They are usually like "You all are teachers, you are obligated to do that type of work all the time no matter what! It is 100% concrete that you must be fully mature, because you are educating these kids on maturity and adequate background knowledge!" without digging into our lives any further.
- They are straight up fallaciously invalidating you at this point…
- Yeah. Whenever we refute their statements, all the things we get from them are negatively blunt statements filled with emotional fallacies and forceful impositions, they are excessively jejune to the extent that we cannot make out at all. Still, we love educating these teenagers, as to us, this is our passion. For us, the cognitive growth of these teenagers are more important than the imbecile-like statements made by those judgemental individuals.
- Aw, thanks for your professional and personal insight! Not only that, but it also affects older individuals in some Vietnamese online communities in this year of 2024 and perhaps so on, it's just that it goes in a slightly different way. Whenever I put my guard down to do a few silly things for my age, I have always been judged with statements like "You're 20 years old, why are you still like this?" or "People of 2004 like you are a shame to your other peers". Whenever I refute these younger people, they will highly just straight up ignore the conversation or they may say "It's not that serious, now you're basically acting serious all of a sudden". I'm fed up with that, really.
- Ow, I'm sorry for your unpleasant experience with these kids.
- Finally, let me ask you a question: which one do you value more, a peaceful life or societal maturity?
- I would pick the former. What about you?
- I would pick that too. The whole "maturity" concept is something that is just ... I have no idea what to say about that.Then we talk about some other things for a while. After that, we give each other a polite goodbye, then the teacher leaves the 'tra da' stand.I just sit there looking at the sky and some random thoughts just come to my mind all of a sudden...I mean we basically have to conform to social norms to maintain the overall harmony of our society, whether individualist or collective; however, does that mean our peace is considered something unreal? Also, why can some societal norms be that absurd?And finally..."What is life?”

Notices for readers

Please do not try to twist my words in any way. If you have any concerns about the fiction/short story, feel free to ask me.-Patri Lily-