My Reflections

A Birthday Inconvenient?

Day Seven: AN INCONVENIENT BIRTHDAY

It is a bit inconvenient to share a birthday with a major holiday or to have your birthday close to it. I can give several examples of this. A cousin’s birthday is December 25th. My birthday is December 22nd. My best friend’s birthday is November 26th. This sometimes happens to be Thanksgiving Day.

It can be very difficult to plan birthday parties around the above-mentioned dates. I can't say it hasn't been interesting, though for me personally, I didn't have many birthday parties. My cousin usually celebrates her birthday on December 31st or she really wouldn't get one of her own. I tried to throw my best friend a party a couple of years ago and only two guests showed up. Everyone else seemed to be out of town at the time. That was a bit disappointing.

My mom planned a huge birthday party for me when I turned five years old at a local McDonald's. She invited all my friends from church. Only two showed up. She never gave me another birthday party again. She always said it wasn't worth it if only two people would show up. I ended up baring a lot of my mother's disappointments.

You have to be prepared to deal with disappointments in life. So only two people showed up? It was still fun and enjoyable on both of the cases I mentioned above. You have to be prepared to make the most of it or you are going to just be miserable like my mother was. She was very easily offended. As a result, she was offended often.

A lot of times, Christmas parties happened on my birthday, so I made the most of it and partied like it was my birthday because it was. At least I had some kind of party. 🤷‍♀️ There were times it was like an early Christmas. My parents couldn't decide what they wanted to give me for my birthday, so they let me open two or three early Christmas presents of my choosing. Also on the bright side, I rarely had to attend school on my birthday and when I did it was usually Christmas parties all day. My birthday always fell very close to the beginning of Christmas break.

I always felt it was special to have a birthday so close to when we celebrated the birthday of Jesus. I always found a way to enjoy my birthday. Although the year my grandmother died was a bit challenging. That birthday is kind of blurry now. I do remember driving around with my family that evening to look at Christmas lights. It was a welcome distraction for all of us. That was something grandma had always enjoyed doing. My birthday seemed like a great time to do it.

I remember one year being the donkey in the Christmas play at church on my birthday. When I first told my best friend about it, she teasingly said, “What? Were you the donkey?” I laughed and said, “Well, actually I was.” so I actually did play the part of a donkey on one of my birthdays. Sometimes you just have to look for the humor in life.

Word Count 533

A birthday inconvenient,
Inconvenient as can be.
No parties are sufficient
When celebrating me.

My birthday near a holiday,
Inconvenient to celebrate
Due to the jingle bell way.
Born this day was my fate.

I celebrate me every chance I get.
Inconvenient as it may be,
My life still matters yet.
I still enjoy being me.

For the poem
Line count 12
Word count 56