Birthdays. I have been ridiculed on a consistent basis for my views on this subject, due for the most part to the fact that I tend to extravagantly celebrate them. I understand the argument against the matter; it’s just that I don’t agree with it, simply stated.
Ever since I was very young I have valued my own birthday. I don’t believe that is uncommon. What can be more exciting to a child than staying up past their bedtime, eating cake, and receiving boatloads of presents? Really, nothing compares. But as I have gotten older, I have realized that a birthday is much more than a party with fattening food and worthless, last minute gifts. It is about having a celebration of life. That may sound corny, but I believe that it is so true. It is a time when you take inventory of the people in your life that are worth celebrating.
I have recently concluded a yearlong experiment in regard to this subject. Announced only to my family, I began to really search what I believe to be true on this matter via Facebook. Now, I know what the reader is thinking here, most likely anyway; that this is a blog on the benefits of facebook. Not to worry my skeptical friends, it is not so. I simply used Facebook as a vehicle to find the truth.
One year ago on my birthday, I started to tally all of the well wishes that I received and look at each one of them individually. I realized that since I love being well wished, that surely everyone else does also. So, on October 30, 2010, I stated silently, and just to myself, my scientific procedure.
1.The problem: What do I really value in my friends and do they mean enough to me to take time out of my day to wish them happy birthday, even if that is the only correspondence I have with them all year long?
2. The Hypothesis: If I cannot, or do not want to wish them a happy birthday, then they aren’t actually a friend and I should reconsider my relationship with them.
3. The Procedure: I will wish every single one of my friends a happy birthday on their respective days for a year.
4. The Data: I didn’t always get to do it on they’re actual birthday, but I did not miss one person all year long. I received thank-yous from most people and even some private messages from others, and some people didn’t even acknowledge my posts at all.
5. The Conclusion: No matter how people responded or who responded, the conclusion I drew was that I, not them, am somehow changed because of it. The experiment forced me to log on to my facebook and think about other people first and examine, even if just for a minute, what those people meant to me. It was really a humbling experience, because I realized that there are so many people who mean something to me in their own right and I have the privilege of helping them to celebrate their lives on their birthday—even though I may not be physically able to do so. I think more than anything, it created a sort of continuity of humanity for me and has just strengthened my birthday convictions all the more.
I have heard people say that birthdays come every year and that if you make too big of a deal of them, that you make them common. I disagree; your birthday is the commemoration of another year of life that can be anything but common, especially in the present world we live in. The other more frequent argument is that it is selfish and inconveniences everyone else to celebrate on such an excessive level. Again, I wholeheartedly disagree. If you have people who care about you, your life is not an inconvenience to them, and celebrating you as a person is anything but excessive.
Wherever you are in life, you should take time to celebrate your birthday as well as the fact that there are people out there who care about you. Your birthday should mark the life before you, not tally the life behind you. Celebrate what has been done and hope for what is next! A yearly reminder for you and all of your friends and family that you are a living, breathing human being with thoughts, dreams, wishes and hopes – there is no greater reason to celebrate than that! No matter how big the celebration, or how few people attend it, you can celebrate that you are alive!
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