The True Essence of Birthdays

A realization hit me last week when I had my 20th birthday. Every time we course through life, we have to celebrate our birthdays with our loved ones and close companions, but what is there when celebrating a birthday? Is it just an annual event that everyone celebrates since it commemorates the day of our birth? Or is it a day that marks that we have reached a particular milestone in our life, a milestone that makes us realize our progress in life? As we thread to our enigmatic future, what does genuinely beckon in the end only based on the present?

Blast from the past

The definition of my birthdays back then used to be centered upon fun and thanksgiving to a beautiful date defined by your existence with your loved ones. They come along as you age through life, and what makes them unique is that you can claim that “this is your day.” And your friends and family give you the benefit of being the happiest person on that specific day. It can range from gifts, surprise wishes, serenades, and even the coolest of parties. I never had the slightest of doubt that a birthday of mine could go wrong. When I was a kid, the feeling of being validated over a day makes you feel special at some point inside you, hahaha! It makes you feel even younger as you age through the years. I recall that is worthy of being mentioned in the past because you anticipate this “day”. You feel the rush and thrill of what’s supposed to happen on your birthday; is something exciting going to happen? Is something good going to come my way? Those type of questions, and of course, you can’t help but pray that your birthday won’t be getting caught in bad luck’s way, hahaha! I guess that’s what we feel when the innocence of youth still graces us. If only I can imagine having my kid’s birthday soon enough, I would do everything so that my kid would enjoy the little things in life. Birthdays are often memorable, and it’s something to cherish in the long run-in life. This tradition wouldn’t die out as this brings out your happy thoughts and having the chance to connect with your loved ones and thanking them for being there always on may it on your big day or your darkest days.

Though this often comes many realizations as you age, the realization just hit me as I turned 20.

 The realizations of the 20th Mark

Imagine waking up and feeling as you crossed the threshold of being an adult the excitement you feel when you finally have the freedom you sought. As soon as you got up, you receive messages from friends and loved ones offering birthday wishes. You go on your special day, celebrating your day of birth as usual. Still, it just catches up to you sooner or later, the wave of realization that everything doesn’t feel the same anymore. It just hits you that you’re no longer a kid. After this day, you thought that you would be back to reality again, the same old cycle that you call a daily routine in trying to get used to life while trying to enjoy it. No man is an island, I suppose; the existential dread that crawls unto you every single day hits hard. Good thing you have peers to rely on; they give you emotional support and help you with coping up with life; it’s also a bonus if you have a partner. So having done for the day, you sleep comfortably knowing you had a good time celebrating your day, either you’re drunk, high, or just euphoric to claim that you already reached a milestone in life and have the chance again to start something good with a new age.

Everything that we do as we age to a particular day marks us to be a person that is responsible for doing the duties of what your age corresponds to be. People set expectations about your maturity, responsibility, and even your progress. The life skills that you acquired is one thing that they would scrutinize. Being a young adult equates to you that you’re now able to support your own and would do so in the upcoming years. That’s just reality, and reality is just a depressing yet enlightening perspective. Marking your age with a specific date on the calendar when you were born helps you realize all of the achievements you acquired or even arrange your aspirations on what you will do in that particular age or timeline. As kids, we sometimes talk about where we want to be in the future at a particular age; for example, when we were just 16 years old, we would see ourselves as successful people in the next ten years. That will help out a lot in organizing our lives while anticipating our birthdays to be fun and memorable.

I guess I can say that the true essence of birthdays is defined when we ponder and think for ourselves that we are not getting any younger sooner or later. We have to be equipped with the skills to survive the harshness and reality of the world. Happiness and gracefulness are some of the best feelings that we can feel when we have our birthdays. Still, it should also be a time to realize our path, strengths and weaknesses, life plans and goals, etc. We are making our birthdays the “checkpoints” where we reflect and at the same time have fun with those people who stayed in our lives through the better or worst. Because the world is one cruel place and reality often hits us hard, so we must get a hold of ourselves so that we won’t lose ourselves while we tread to our uncharted future.

-          Marcmire

Man, it’s been rough lately, I don’t think the traditional learning set-up would be implemented here in our country sooner and later. I gave my hopes up on the government officials, they pretty suck in handling this situation to be honest. What’s sure is that I’ll be focusing more in skills and stuff and I really appreciate it if you’ve come to read this far, it means a lot!

It’s been a while since I’ve written something, school’s over now and I might as well do write about the dreams and how I interpret them in a the most creative way I could’ve imagine. I missed this platform, I guess it’s time to go back and write some more.

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