Time flies

I just got an email from Mercy, my Zambian housemate - she was both my housemate in Zambia, and actually Zambian, which was a little rare for the school where I was working - most of the Zambian staff were married and lived with their families, most of the young, single staff were European and American volunteers.

Mercy is amazing, and meeting her was probably the best part of the whole six months. Because of visa complications, I was the only gap year student there (the others arrived four months later), so despite being a few years older than me she immediately became my closest friend on the site. When the other gappies arrived they were placed in a house together, so I think their experience was probably very different - Mercy showed me Zambian culture from the inside, made me Zambian food every day, tried to teach me some of her language, let me see the Western world from her point of view, and even took me back to her family's home in the capital to spend Christmas there. I miss her very much.

Anyway, this email made me feel very old. How is it three years since I first met her? I guess a lot has happened since then, though I don't always feel like it. She had just got engaged when I met her, got married shortly ater I left, and now her baby daughter is walking! Really hope I can meet her little girl one day. Plus she was emailing to wish me a happy 22nd birthday, which is on Friday. For some reason 22 seems like the first age to be 'properly adult', 21 almost seems like the learner year of adulthood, and 22 is the real thing.

And I still don't have a clue what I want to do with my future. If I want to do at masters at my uni I need to decide in the next two weeks. If I want to go to Japan I have about a month to make up my mind. If I want to do in a masters in Glasgow whilst living at home, I probably have about two months decision time. Why do they all want me to decide on my life plan a few weeks into my final year? The more they try and rush me the more I procrastinate :-s