Grocery Shopping With Grandma

Today I took my 80+ year old grandma to run errands/ grocery shopping. I don't think I've spent any alone time with her since I was a kid. It was kind of awkward at first; my Vietnamese isn't the greatest but we managed. I must say I was pretty impressed with the Vietnamese I was able to scrap up. It was just funny because I had to pronounce American words with fob accent. For example,  Austin was "Aww-Tin" and Dallas was "Da-Lut". But after taking her to grocery shop today, I am so amazed at how self-sufficient she is. She even has almost her entire head of hair and it's mostly black! And her English is pretty decent all things considered. I am so in awe of how she manages to live by herself and take care of herself at that age. She doesn't even really need anyone to go grocery shopping because she'll take the bus. The public one. In Houston. In ALIEF. God, she's brave.

Perhaps I have a distorted perception of what the elderly are like, but I'm pretty sure my grandma could still kick my ass if I ever crossed her. As I enter this new chapter of my life *cries*, I hope I cherish it and if I'm so lucky to reach my grandmother's age that I'm that independent and not senile and crazy like Clint Eastwood (yeah, I went there!). I can't even imagine what crazy stories she could tell us about her life. I KNOW she has plenty.

It's insane to think that a few years ago my little butt was running around grocery stores with my younger brothers blowing up plastic bags to make "balloons", bumping into strangers because we had to keep the balloon off the ground. Now I'm an adult taking my grandma to the store. Just like that, in a blink of an eye, my childhood flashes before me. Where did the years go? When did my siblings and I stop being little rascals that made forts on our bunk beds? When did I stop acting like the bossy big sister and make them memorize the planets (back when Pluto was included! ) and multiplication tables?

Entering new stages of life are always hard.

Puberty was hard. Adulthood is hard. Becoming a senior citizen will probably be hard. But it always takes these stages to remind us of the life cycles, that we move on and we grow and ultimately, that life is short and fragile. Insert YOLO here. I'm kidding. Don't ever say YOLO around me. But reeaalllyyy life happens so quickly and we only get to do it once. Are you making the most of it? I'm not sure I am sometimes. Just something I thought about today on my little field trip with grandma...


Fitting Youtube video I found :

xox,
Sandra/ Mailan

P.s. Sorry I'm so extremely nostalgic and that all my posts have been about growing up. This is just how I deal. Expect the next few posts to be a continuation of my whining and inability to face that I am no longer a kid.