My birthday is April 25th, 1977. That means I turned twenty-nine years old on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006. That will probably not really mean a lot to you. In fact, I don’t think it’s really important to anyone but me.
That wasn’t always the case, of course, but a lot has happened to me in the last year. This will be the first year in... well, ever, I guess... that someone hasn’t been planning something or figuring something for me on this date. When I was a boy, it was my parents. After that, it was my friends. Then my girlfriend.
But situations change, people change, people’s opinions change. I don’t expect anything to happen on my birthday that doesn’t happen any other day. I’ll go to work. I’ll come home. I’ll have dinner. I might spurge a little, and pick up Advent Children for myself. If I’m lucky, I may get an email or two.
Am I disappointed? A little. Anyone who says they wouldn’t be is lying. Your birthday, for a long time in the front end of your life, was always a day where everything revolved around you. It was your party, it was your birthday cake, and it was all about what you wanted to do. When a year comes around and no one makes a big deal about it anymore... well, you do a big old pile of growing-up in that one day.
Of course, I not bawling my freaking eyes out :)
The great thing about now is having a fun job, getting steady income, living on my own, and living the life I want to live. And as a grown man, I don’t have to mope. I’m capable of solving problems! If I want company, I have a telephone. I have email. And I have friends who would be willing to have a drink or two if I want to hang out.
Next year I’ll be thirty years old, one of those dreaded round numbers that gets into peoples brains and makes them start to complete over-analyse their life. You might be thinking "I won’t be doing that, I have no problem with the way I’m living my life"... bullshit. Wait until you get there. Wait until you’re close to being there. Wait until that crawling desperation is tickling the back of your mind, letting you know that let-it-work-itself-out years are over and the this-is-the-rest-of-your-life years are starting, and you find yourself wanting to do things you haven’t done in a long stretch because thats the sorts of things you did when you were in your early twenties.
It’s a measure of a man, how he handles these transitions from one decade to the next. Does he try to continue to live as he did years before? Does try to evolve into what he expects this age should be about? Does he re-evaluate himself? Does he try to find value in himself? On how he’s done up to now? On what he hopes to accomplish?
Does he mature a little?
I believe so. You cannot help but do so, no matter how you end up getting through it.
But having friends and/or family making you feel special on that one day, even just a little can’t hurt any ;)