The Month of Birthdays

February is the month of birthdays. 

At least, it has always been that way growing up. I always thought that was weird; the shortest month has the most celebrations? My friends from high school, my boyfriend, my sisters and I, and what seems like so many more people all have birthdays in the same 28-day month.

I have three sisters. Out of the four of us, three of us were born in February. Isn’t that crazy?

In the fall, it’s my little sister’s birthday, but the rest of us were born in February. I never really thought much of it growing up, until recently. It must feel a little weird. In her shoes, it must feel like you’re being left out of the party. 

Even though she gets her celebration just a couple of months before us, we all spend this month celebrating, going to dinner, or picking our favorite meals and desserts that mom will make for us, and she just has to deal with it. 

It isn’t like she doesn’t get the same opportunities that we have; she does. However, she is secluded from the rest of us. So much time passes between her birthday and the month of February, and then no time passes at all, and all the celebrations come back to back to back.

Both our parents were born the month before her, but that doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t get the same kind of celebrations and connection that we get and can create with each other, and I can’t help but imagine that she feels left out. 

I think that as we grow up, the gap between our birthdays and hers will feel more and more prominent, as the age gap between us matters less and less. 

The 15 years between us all will become less of a barrier for celebration, and our birthdays will be spent together, but hers will have been months before. We will all be able to go out for each other’s birthdays, and she will too, but it won’t be the same celebration.

Our birthdays being so close together creates this bond between us three that she might not have. It makes me grateful for what I have, but also sympathetic for this opportunity she doesn’t have, that she also didn’t have any control over.

Even still, it is my birthday, and I’m excited!

I would like to say I am a pretty chill, low-maintenance person. I am not the one who needs a big party, or expensive gifts, or even anything. I just want to spend time with the people I love around me and maybe, maybe a little dessert👀. 

And this year, I am getting just that; I couldn’t care less about the rest. I get to go to dinner with my boyfriend and then spend the next week with my family, and it makes me so excited.

One of my favorite birthdays was when I turned 18. I had mentioned to my parents that I didn’t remember having streamers hung across the kitchen like they used to do when we were little. Probably because they were up for three weeks consecutively so my parents wouldn’t have to do the same thing basically the next day for my other sister and me. But on my 18th birthday, I walked into the house to see streamers hanging from the ceiling. 

Something so small as using the same 20-year-old streamers and tacks and just hanging them across the ceiling brought me so much joy. It wasn’t anything crazy or expensive, just the little things. 

Sometimes, I do think birthdays are a little silly or over-hyped, but also, who doesn’t love one day that is basically their day?

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