Birthdays

June 6th, 2005 - My last day of being 24.

I'm not a big birthday person. That is, I don't really go out there and make a point of forcing my friends and my family to celebrate my birthday with me. I guess it has to do with the fact of how my friends have treated birthdays for the past couple of years. Birthdays to us have become like a "chore" - an obligated, mandatory event that everyone in our group must do. That includes the mandatory dinner and the "forced" gift that everyone chips in (but only one person buys - and usually at the last minute). So 2 years ago, I stopped even organizing my birthday - it's too much hassle and the last thing I want to do is to force my friends to come out and scramble for a present (usually gift certificates I might add).

I must say that I'm part of the guilty party though. But I also don't see the point of getting a whole bunch of people together and force them to celebrate your birth. Unless you have done some miraclous thing, your birth is not something that everyone should stop, take hold, and jump for joy.

Of course, I'm always flattered that my friends remember - it is after all MY special day. And birthdays aren't just about me, it's also about my poor mother who spent hours in the delivery room giving birth to me. So yes, I'm grateful for that - but do my friends need to throw a party to celebrate my mom's hours of labour pain ? no..not really.

Having said that, I am going out with different people this week to celebrate my birthday. Though they are all just quiet dinners - more like get-togethers than really a birthday celebration. I hope they won't get me a cake - I don't really need a cake do I ? and there better not be singing waiters ! (which is the stupidest thing I've seen - I don't need strangers to sing and dance around my table - like they don't care about you nor your birthday - they don't even know your name. It is cheap stunts like this that makes birthday celebrations so superficial - though of course we could say that about Christmas too...)

This year is special too of course - as I will be hitting the quarter-century mark. More about that on my birthday post I guess ?