Today is my birthday. It’s been a few years since I’ve been this excited about it. When I was away from Portugal, in New Zealand or in Chile, I missed being with my family and my friends. I’d get super depressed. To be honest, I cried every year, expect the first one because I was just super happy to be in New Zealand for the first time. After that, my birthday was just a day where I liked to torment myself unconsciously.
It’s very “adult” to say: “I’m not too into my birthday”, “my birthday is just like any other day” and I eventually absorbed it and started saying that too. Celebrating my birthday seemed childish. But saying this, not only I’m belittling the day I was born, I’m also passing it on to other people, if I don’t care about my birthday, why should they?
And this year intuitively I envisioned it differently. Today I’m going to work, but I’m going to bring cake and naturally carbonated lemonade. I spent all night making cake, actually two cakes, they were the same but still it took time. I made the lemonade Saturday so it would be ready today. Yesterday I invited some closer colleagues from work to have lunch today someplace nearby. Tomorrow I’m going to Paris with my brother and my parents so we can all be together and give them the opportunity to visit the country that they lived for so long. I came back twice since we moved out of France but they never did. We’re going to have fun. When I come back, me and my friends are all going for brunch since today I’m going to have a quieter evening so I rest for tomorrow’s flight.
It’s not going to be the best day of the world, especially since I’m going to work. However, I’m going to be with some people from work that I really like and having that chance to celebrate it with them will be great.
And with just this, I feel happier, I’m not thinking that I’m getting closer to 30, I’m not thinking about everything I need to do, I’m just thinking about enjoying this day. I’m ready to welcome 27! 26 was hard, not because something bad happened but I’ve been fighting my internal demons a lot and slowly I’ve been getting better and being one year older it’s not making me anxious, which is an accomplishment in itself.
If your birthday is important for you, tell it to the world, no one is going to guess. Be good to yourselves!