How many times have you celebrated your birthday and were happy that it was finally over? All the visitors, gifts, cake and laughters were great but boy did it feel good once the house was for yourself and cleaned up again. I wonder, why are we even celebrating our birthday at all?
Well, for one I receive a beautiful handmade card from our daughter every year so that is one good reason to become one year older. Plus I get to see her and our son and eat cake made by my wife, so far so good! But birthdays also remind me about another year passing by without me doing anything really impactful, and another one with a lot of troubles is about to start…
Hundreds of years have passed in which parents secretly celebrated together that their child had survived another year. Life and good health is still very valuable today but not so long ago children often died before they even reached the age of 10 because of all the diseases that were spreading across the globe.
Another reason for people to celebrate is because after 364 days of little attention their birthday is their 100% ‘me’ day. All 1440 minutes of it are about themselves and everyone who comes to visit or calls you or writes you is paying attention to YOU ONLY which feels very special. This is especially true for children who are allowed to eat and do about anything they want and they get gifts on top of that!
There are also many laws in place that allow you to do more once you reach a certain age, like for example that moment you are allowed to go to school, drive a car, drink alcohol, get married and retire.
You could also see your birthday as a day to thank your mother for giving birth to you, I mean she worked harder for it than you am I right? It can be a day to reflect on the past year and make promises to yourself for the next one. And some people would come up with anything to throw a party, so birthdays are definitely handy.
I am not very optimistic and do not consider my birth as something valuable to the world. I am also not much into group events as I always feel lonely and ‘less’ than others the more people are around me. Plus my high sensitivity actually makes me sick of all the triggers that go off during a birthday, so I need at least another day to recover afterwards.
There are many reasons to celebrate or skip birthdays, and I do wonder whether I am the only one who rather forgets about them…
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