no longer your jiejie

I've spent many hours contemplating what it means to be an adult and whether or not I am one when I do/don't feel like one. Well, ready or not, regardless of how I feel internally, I've finally stumbled across the indisputable sign of being an adult: when children (of landladies, neighbors, family friends) start calling you "ah yi".

"AH YI HAO," they say.

"Oh dear lord," I say, in terror. There's no going back from here.