Reasons I Don't Like to Celebrate My Birthday

I've seen people going bat-shit crazy whenever their birthday's looming on the horizon. They'll upload "Keep calm because my birthday is in 10 months and 17 days" pictures, expect everyone to remember their birth charts, reply to all 700 hollow "hbd 2 u" wishes on their timeline, invite hundreds of people, some of whom they've met once or twice in their lives and will probably never meet again. When asked, one of my friends revealed that the thought of people treating you special and being nice for no reason on this day is what he likes about celebrating birthdays. 

Then there's us, who don't like to celebrate our birthdays. Being asked "Why don't you like celebrating your birthday?" multiple times every year and being stared at in horror by all my friends and family members, I think the time has come to explain why I'm not all cheery at the thought of celebrating it.

Don't get me wrong. I like birthdays, surprises, opening up presents, eating cakes and throwing parties. Just not for myself. It's not like the concept of getting older is what I dread about this day, but what makes me uncomfortable is people fussing all over me for that one day. Even the thought of being surrounded by all my friends breaking into singing the birthday chorus is enough to make me cringe visibly. 

It has been many years but I don't think I'll ever be able to deal with the universal horror of being sung the birthday song in a restaurant and strangers joining in and clapping while I stand there awkwardly, not realising what I'm supposed to do. Am I supposed to smile and look around while my friends are singing? Or am I supposed to look at the cake and pray that the Earth opens up and swallows me whole? Would it be okay if I eat up a slice of cake while they're at it? While they are feeding me cake, am I supposed to look at the camera and smile or focus on eating the slice? These questions, however, remain unanswered.  

I don't see the point of writing "Thank you" with a creepy smiley emoticon on a post of someone I last talked five years back at a summer camp. Same goes for the situation when you have to reply to long posts that start with "I'm not good at writing birthday wishes but I'll do it for you because…" Wherever we go that day, people come up to us and ask us if we're doing anything fun. The only thing that would seem enjoyable to us probably is people forgetting the date while it quietly slipped by. But that never happens. 

What stopped all of us from putting a damper on all their efforts is all our friends, significant others and family members coming together and planning a surprise. After all, they were just trying to make our day and our year a little better. Why not let them do it?

Aateeya Saabeen, scarily resembles a koala bear in looks and in sleeping patterns is a dedicated Beatlemaniac, who believes her Hogwarts letter got lost in the mail because they misspelled her name. Leave her a message on www.facebook.com/aateeya.saabeen