Reaction to Birthdays- Oh, how they change

Happy October everyone!

For my family, October means birthdays!!! My youngest sister, who is turning 15, was born on Oct. 5. My middle sister, who is turning 17, was born on Oct. 8. My mother (we won’t say her age… they don’t like that over the age of 30) was born on Oct. 9. My cousin Chelsea, my mom’s sister’s kid, was born on Oct. 13.

… and my birthday is Oct. 11. SHEEEESH!

I really wish I could go home and spend a weekend with my family, but it looks like I’m going to have to wait until the end of December.

So, in 10 days I’m going to be 24-years-old—which means, I’m going to technically be in my mid-twenties. Wow! I was thinking about how fast time has flown by on my drive home from work today, and then I remembered that had written a blog about birthdays awhile ago. I just assumed it was last year when I turned 23. Ugh, I was wrong.

I logged onto Myspace (remember that decrepit old website that used to be cool when we were kids? Haha) and I searched through my old blog entries. When I found it, I couldn’t believe I had written it TWO years ago. I was feeling a little old at 22. I thought I’d repost a little bit of that blog today:

…I kept wondering why I was not excited at all for my birthday. When you think about how reactions change for birthdays it is pretty funny…

1st birthday- Your parents probably throw a party for you where all your relatives come and watch you try to grab the burning flame from the b-day candle on the cake instead of blowing it out. You have no idea what is going on and will never remember it. The smart parents are the ones who realize this, and just say f-it. You don’t get a party cuz you won’t remember it anyway you little shit… (jk, I would never do that.)

2nd-4th b-day- You kind of understand what is going on, and you like cake by now. Presents are fun to open and you can probably blow out your own candle this time by yourself. Hopefully you are not still pooping your pants… no one likes a party pooper.

5th-9th b-day- This is the stage when you get super excited for birthday parties. Now invitations come into place which introduces children to the notion of friend selection, manipulation, and even rejection. You have to pick which friends to invite in the first place. If your parents are cool, they will let you invite however many people you want. But if you have a party at let’s say… a skating rink… well, perhaps spots are limited. You then have to choose which friends are most important.

10th-15th b-day- So now the opposite sex is what birthdays are all about. You still want a birthday party but only if boys can come. The only presents you really care about are the ones you either get or don’t get from your crush.

16th b-day- Sweet sixteen… you finally get to drive. You probably counted down the days in your school planner for at least 100 days preceding the monumental day. (365 days for me) If you are me, it is a mixed blessing. I finally had independence when I turned 16 as a junior. Everyone else could already drive so I figured I’d be a pro. Not so much. I totaled my Tercel twice by slamming it into two different trucks in the span of a year and a half. But FOR MOST people, turning 16 is all about getting the driver’s license and probably the b-day you look forward to the most.

17th- It’s a pretty good b-day. You are in high school still. People decorate your locker, your car. It’s cool.

18th- Whoohoo, you can be tried as an adult, and buy porn and cigarettes. Parents don’t even try and buy you presents anymore. From this point on, it is just money.

19th-20th- You are probably in college now so birthdays are exciting because it is another excuse to get wasted. House parties with kegs are the norm for underage college birthdays. Your friends and roommates are always aware of your birthday and tend to do something special for it.

21st- YES! You can finally get into the bars… well legally that is. Throw your fake ID’s away and proudly show that piece of plastic that actually has real laminate on it!! Regressing to your first birthday that you don’t remember, you probably don’t remember your 21st either– of course, for much different reasons. This all depends on how nice your friends are to you. In my case, my 21st b-day was not too crazy. I was in my senior year of college playing soccer and we had a “dry season.” Booo hoo. I wasn’t too sad though since I had been going to bars for the past two years thanks to a fake id from Connecticut. Do Asians even live in that state? If you are Asian and live there, Holler!

22nd- Well this is where I am at right now. It is coming up and it just seems like all birthdays from here just go downhill. I know that my Andrew will make it a special and wonderful day no matter what, but I am just not excited for it. I don’t have a lot of friends out here, and besides, there is really nothing special about turning 22. I’m not saying I’m old or that I will not look forward to birthdays in the future… I’m just trying to figure out why this one just seems so “unspecial”

So that’s what I wrote two years ago. I’d expected birthdays to go downhill from there, but I think I was mostly upset because I didn’t have many friends in Las Vegas. Things have really changed on that front though. I’ve made incredible friends at Card Player, and Andrew’s brother Tony also moved from Fort Wayne to Las Vegas.

Last year, I had an incredible birthday. Andrew took me to see Sara Bareilles in concert and then he and a few of my friends threw a surprise birthday party for me a week after Oct. 11 so I was extra extra surprised! (Shout out to Ryan and Amir, both Card Player programmers, for helping and having it at their house!)

So, instead of dreading my birthday like I thought I would every year since my 21st, I’m excited this year.

Birthday’s are all about being with the people you care about (omg, I’m such a cheeseball), and as I get older, I’m realizing that more and more. I honestly don’t even want presents – psh, I bought myself one two days ago in the form of super tall black boots which Imma break out on my b-day– boooyahhhh.

Haha, I just want to go out with my friends and maybe get a little drinky on– Oh, and I kinda want to wear a crown. Is that weird?

I’m not sure I’ll always feel content and excited like this, but I think at least through my mid-twenties I will. Once I get into the late-twenties, I might feel differently, but hopefully I will have matured enough to realize that age ain’t nuthin butta numba! I can’t predict how my reactions will change to birthdays in the future, but I can say that I will be excited for my 40th because apparently, I will be official “cougar” status.

I REALLY hope you guys realize I’m not saying that I think I’m all old or over the hill. I’m just saying that the fear of getting older is a common theme among twenty-something year-olds mostly, and that it’s hilarious how outlooks on our “special day” change. Anyway, I hope you all are well, and I hope you guys like this blog site. If you do, don’t forget to subscribe! You can do it by RSS Feed or e-mail!

<3 Kris