AN IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ME AND AN 11 YEAR OLD/

I just read a short story written by my little brother’s 10 year old friend. She constructed a story based on her future life and entitled it simply, “My Life”. It was endearing because she managed to put their entire barkada in a make-believe situations. It also narrated that she studied in both Harvard and Cambridge. And like a lot childhood fantasies, it included her ambitions about being a doctor/businesswoman. O diba?

It struck a chord because amidst the cutesy-patutsy dreams, the less-than-perfect grammar, I found a subject matter that was odd, horrifying and hilarious. In her story, she said that she got married, had a kid and eventually divorced. Not only that, but ALL her other girlfriends were divorced as well. To top it all off, she got married once more and got divorced yet again. This is a kid’s fantasy life story and in it she said,

“We got married, had a daughter and divorced. Because when I said no, he says yes. I say yes, he says no. Actually we were terribly complete opposites. And plus he liked some other chick. I got about 500,000 dollars, half of what both of us earned or had in our savings account.”

Wow. She even went as far as to tell us about her divorce settlement. I had now idea that kids have jumped past getting over divorce to actually full-out embracing it. Even my brother gives me random advise like. “Get married and when you get divorced, get some money. Then, marry your true love”. At that time, I thought he was joking but I’m not laughing now.

The little girl who wrote this is not from a broken family. In fact, she’s the daughter of my favorite grade school teacher- a notable figure in my life for being loving and totally upright. It’s shocking how kids are growing up as jaded as this. Divorce is just another milestone, much like graduation or marriage itself. They are so calm and nonchalant about it. It begs the question, “If 11 year old kids are plotting out divorce in their life plan, should a mature 23 year old woman start considering the possibility too?”.