Birthdays

I have an odd relationship with my birthday. Mostly it’s not good. Me turning another year, I don’t care. Having people remember my birthday – that’s what I usually didn’t get growing up.

Here’s why – my birthday is an internationally celebrated Holiday that just past. Yes – New Year’s Day. No I wasn’t the first baby of the year, I had more sense than that. I waited until most of the hard partier’s were passed out. My mom said the hospital was quiet before I came.

What really gets me sour is the fact that if I tried to plan a group of friends coming together, it failed. When I planned my own 16th birthday everyone who I wanted to stay had to leave. And everyone I had to invite to be polite and wanted them very much to leave stayed.

So I decided that I would never expect anything big for my birthday again. I aim to be with family and/or traveling to keep my flight costs down. I don’t expect anyone to remember and I don’t expect any gifts. This keeps me grateful for when people do remember or do give me gifts. It’s sad and true.

I know most everyone else has a more positive, much healthier, experience with their birthdays. I’m glad for you. Enjoy every one of your birthdays. For me, I hope that none of my future kids have an international or national holidays for their birthday. And if they do, I’ll do my best to ensure they have much better memories of their birthdays than I did.

And I will make doubly sure they never ever receive long johns as a birthday gift in three packages. Awkward doesn’t even begin to cover it.