When, oh when?

I've had this foreign object in my body since I was in grade3. That time, all my baby teeth decided to all come out. I was left with 3 teeth missing at one time. It was not fun at all, especially if you have friends who make you laugh and smile all the time.

My permanent teeth developed earlier and dad saw to it that they get fixed. I didn't know there was something wrong with them coz I think they were ok. But at that time, it was cool if you had braces and retainers. You were rockin and you were rich at first but it was a pain.

Food got stuck in your teeth...
you'd cut your lips and the insides of your cheeks...
you'd swallow some of the rubber bands...

The feeling of something moving your teeth forcefully wasn't graceful. It hurt a lot and oftentimes, I'd drool on my pillow and on pagong coz those damned devices make sure you don't get to close your mouth properly. But looking back at those pictures, braces wasn't enough motivation for me to lose weight. It was great motivation for my sister, though.

If I went though pain.. she went through hell. She had the worst teeth among us so hers was the most painful. Oftentimes, she'd just sit with her friends in the canteen and watch them eat. Her lips were dry and split from the metal bullies.

My brother was just plain pasaway. He'd keep on breaking his brackets and loosing his bands.

But through it all, our teeth were really different now from when we were in grade school. I keep thinking about the happier moments. We'd get to choose colors for our bands every week. Sometimes I have them all in pink, oftentimes they were all in different colors. They were fun to wear, despite the pain behind it.

When I was finally able to get rid of the damned metals (6-7 years after), I switched to retainers. Until now, I'm still wearing them. At least I get to choose my colors everytime I have to change them.

But I keep thinking... I'll be 23 soon. It's been 13 years already since my mouth was bare. I don't exactly take them off when I wake up. I got used to the habit of doing things wearing my retainers it became natural. The last time I took them off for an hour, I got 3 painful cuts coz the skin underneath were so tender.

I want these things taken off already... really, I can't imagine kissing someone with my retainers. Hahaha!