My Birthday

My birthday is a bittersweet kind of day. It marks the day when my life took a sharp turn. On my sixteenth birthday I got home from work to the news that my dad lost his job. That kind of news can take the celebratory mood away from any day much less one’s birthday. And I’m pretty certain when my dad told me he lost his job I said “You’re kidding”. I honestly didn’t really believe him… until he didn’t go to work the next day. Fast forward a year and I was spending my birthday packing boxes to move.

Side note, I even had a bummer birthday when I was turning twelve. I was in a production of The Music Man and my birthday fell on the last dress rehearsal. The last dress rehearsal is when the pictures and video are taken and… I got sick. I wasn’t able to show up (I didn’t want to spread what I had with the other cast members), my whole family was at the rehearsal and I was at home on the couch in my pjs. It was one of my favorite shows to do and I’m hardly in any photos.

Okay, back to the story. Packing boxes to move on my seventeenth birthday….

Don’t get me wrong, I love my life in Northern Michigan, but there is something to be said for home. The place I grew up. Where I learned how to ride a bike. Where I opened my American girl doll on Christmas morning. Where I practiced hours of piano. Where Sunday afternoons were spent together eating food and aimlessly looking at ads in the newspaper. There is something to be said for home. So while most people get excited about their birthday I am usually feeling pretty nostalgic. It reminds me of change (of which I’m not a huge enthusiast) and what I had to leave behind.

Despite my sometimes melancholy mood about my birthday, today I am feeling pretty blessed. Gyros, sunshine, cheesecake, singing, lotion, and a new board game. These may seem like random unimportant things, but they mean something to me. They remind me of the people in my life. If it were not for that I would only be thinking about the sad parts of my birthday, but these things make me feel pretty blessed.