Birthday Girl

It’s my birthday!

Well, almost.

My actual birthday isn’t until Monday, May 4th, but we like to celebrate early in this house.

I share my birthday with the likes of NSYNC’s Lance Bass, Oscar winner Audrey Hepburn, and the Star Wars fandom (May the 4th be with you fully commandeered the day only in the last decade and honestly, I’d like it back please.)

A lot of people have a lot of feelings around birthdays. Some people see no reason to celebrate or find it unnecessary to be excited about. It’s just another day. Other people plan their own blow out parties every year and get offended if others don’t drop what they’re doing to acknowledge their birth. Personally, I’ve always been someone who loved birthdays, my own and other people’s. 

My family has always joked that my birthday lasted the whole month and ya know what? Why not? Life is short, milk what you can out of every birthday you get! I don’t care that much about getting presents, though I’ll happily accept them should one come my way, and I don’t really need to have anyone else acknowledge my birthday outside of my husband and my parents. My birthday is for me. I like having a day (or month) that feels special specifically to me. 

But as I get older I’m starting to see the upside of looking at birthdays as just another day. When you’re someone who looks forward to and gets excited about birthdays, it’s a lot easier to get disappointed when they’re not all good ones. And trust me, not every birthday you have will be a good one, an important lesson that I think a lot of kids are learning during this quarantine season. 

I can’t remember the last birthday I had that was an especially good one. I’ve had plenty of decent, average, and okay ones. I’ve def had my fair share of bad ones. But a good birthday? Can’t recall.

A sudden death two days before my 30th birthday last year obviously shifted the vibe. We kind of used my birthday as a small distraction from the other things going on but of course, none of us were really feeling it and overall it was just an emotionally draining time. 

This year I was ready to keep it simple and stress free and just walk around the zoo for a few hours getting my animal on before going to a local spot to grab food. LOLOLOL! Covid-19 said fuck you Jodi and your reasonable birthday plans!

So maybe not having birthday expectations is the way to live? It leaves you less likely to be let down when reality crashes into your cake and lights your day on fire. But where’s the fun in that?

I like getting excited to acknowledge and celebrate making it through another year. As I get older, I might be less outward with that enthusiasm and I might be finding more joy in celebrating in a more peaceful and personal way, but that birthday thrill is still alive.

So come May 4th, I may be stuck at home and unable to celebrate in the way I might have wanted, but it’s still sure to be one for the record books. Thanks quarantine!

Do you have any great or terrible birthday stories to share? Who’s your birthday twin? Share it with us in the comments below!