Sleepovers.

Didn't really have any when I was growing up!

If I think hard about it, I've had 0 sleepovers. So that's 0 sleepover experience. I remember being invited back in kindergarten (when I couldn't even speak English!) and my mom said no. But to this day, I wonder if that was ever an issue of translation more than anything else -__-"

There were multiple factors why I never hung out with the girlies after the sun set and the moon was out.

1. Sleeping bag.
My family doesn't camp. We're sheltered, and fragile Asians who  hate bugs and the rustling of branches and needs air conditioning. So the only sleeping bag we actually possess is this foresty (go figure) army camp out camouflage green sleeping bag with neon green fluff inside. Bleh. Bear vomit. Not what I'd prefer to bring into a room of flower-power carpets and pink unicorn doll houses and matching Barbie pajamas.

2. Pajamas
My mom's mom used to send me these pajamas she'd buy in the tiny alley market place next to her apartment. One pair I remember most vividly was a taxi-yellow top and bottom set with tight wrist and ankle cuffs (to make sure my body heat didn't escape while I snoozed, duh) and there was a line of totoro characters walking along the waist of my pants and shirt. My mom sent me to school while I wore this and I never had the option of quieting this messy loud outfit of color with a set of jeans because I didn't have any so I remember a lot of kids laughing at me. And when I didn't have these unisex clothes sent from across the world, I got boy clothes. Never any unicorns, Polly Pocket or Disney princesses theme - just me and my cheap cotton sweats.

3. Favor
My parents don't like being indebted. They were afraid that if I were go to over to someone's house for the night, American culture would compel these two, not completely assimilated Taiwanese folks to open their doors to my other kindergarten friends (I use the word "friends" loosely now that I remember they laughed at me...) and expose our super Asian, envelope stacked, slippered, box-towered, dried shiitaki mushroom smelling interior of our home. Pride and fear of confrontation and the potential to not be completely accepted due to my culture by my classmates were also factors.

4. Grades
I studied in kindergarten.

* * *
Don't go "woe is you"-ing just yet; I've been having multiple sleepovers now that I'm in college! And I don't feel like I've missed out on much because my college friends are the people with whom I'm most concerned; my high school and below friends, for the most part, belong to a history I don't care to revist. I'm glad that I do have a place of my own, even if it's just for most of a year, to share with my friends and that they are so eager to want my company from when we sleep to when we wake up. Growing up is fun and I've been learning that it doesn't necessarily mean I'm replacing my childhood with something new and more appropriate for "grown ups." Not having the childhood most privileged kids in a developed country have had, this might be one reason why I have "extended adolescence." Fun fun fun.