On your birthday you're the most important person for a full 24 hours. Back when we were young you could basically get away with anything by just shrugging, smiling and saying, "It's my birthday." I've never really seen the appeal in all of that. I've never seen the fuss of it all. I've only ever had one birthday party and that was when I was 4. I remember waking up early on the day of my party. My mom had organised it all and my dad was in Jo'burg at the time. We'd sent invitations out weeks in advance and I liked everyone invited except for this one random guy but my mom insisted he come. I remember waiting for my mom to come home with my cake and to this day it was the best cake I've ever had. It had an F1 track on it with three cars, this was before I even knew the sport existed but I completely loved it. I was king of the castle and every person there was my minion just for the day. It felt cool. They sang to me, we took pictures, I smiled, it was good. I still have some of the pictures from that day but as the years went by, birthdays started to lose their shine. I realised it was cool and everything but I really didn't want to play host to a whole bunch of people and smile for cameras and all those things. I was cynic from an early age.
Now that I'm a double decade, what does my birthday mean to me? Well firstly I'm leaving behind my teens. I am no longer at the prime age for a boy which is 19. I can argue that I'm not 20 yet because in the writing of this, it hasn't hit 4pm and that's when I came to be. I like that as you get older, birthdays become less and less of a big deal. There are less people commenting on how old you're getting and there are less people coming up and making a spectacle of you.
My family know just how to handle it. My dad sent me an sms this morning and that was the last of it. He's getting me cake, which is my weakness, but I wont even be home to have any which is fine by me. My mom sang me a little song and that's where it ended. The rest of the family have said zilch and that's all good and proper with me. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying I hate people wishing me a happy birthday and stuff. I really do appreciate every single call and message I've received, many of which are still coming in, my phone's red light has been blinking all day. What I'm saying is that I don't see why we still make a big thing of an annual event that most of us will come to dread with each passing year. Many of us can truly say that we're no longer those 4 year old kids that woke up early to beat the sun before it woke just so we could take advantage of being the most special person for a day.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
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