The Birthday Dilemma

I don’t hate birthdays. I just don’t like the way they’re celebrated, for myself. I mean, cutting a cake and blowing a candle, while everyone is singing happy birthday and clapping brings out a genuine happiness on the faces of some people, and I love watching those happy faces. Especially kids!!

However, I don’t want that type of celebration for my birthday. I’m 29 now, and even though I don’t exactly remember how it felt when I was way younger (and we didn’t celebrate most of the birthdays with cake anyways), I didn’t exactly care much about cutting a cake (I’d definitely take a dark chocolate though!!). But from what I see around, many people my age still do actually enjoy that kind of celebration, and actually it’s kind of amazing that they’re able to enjoy stuff.

This makes me sound like a fun-hating person, and it’s been said a couple of times, but my ideas of fun are different than most people, and I’m not the only one in this camp. Would you consider running 8 to 10 kilometers daily for 6 years straight, fun?

Now, I don’t in any way want to imply that I don’t enjoy the attention one receives on their birthdays. Of course I do!! People texting and calling to wish you feels great, makes you feel important; and that’s the kind of attention I want. People caring enough to remember the date and sending a simple text. Caring enough, that’s it!!

Special days are special because enough people believe them to be special. Otherwise, it’s just another rotation of the earth. So if one can’t celebrate it with cakes and balloons, surely there’s other things that can be done to make it special, like how Seth Godin donated his birthday, Send the birthday person the wishes and a gift to someone in need. That’s an amazing use of one’s birthday!!

If nothing else, we can use the marker to make a new resolution and carry it till the next birthday. I’m going to try and post more here because my Notion workspace is overflowing with notes and I haven’t published any of it yet. So expect more.

Cheers!!

Originally published at https://manaskocharekar.com on August 22, 2023.