British Joe

I’m turning 15 in a couple of days. Yeah, so what?

I've never understood all the fuss people make over birthdays, how everyone seems to think they're some sort of big event in someone's life. What's the point of having a celebration based on the fact that you happen to be a year older on any one particular day? To me, it's just another day, nothing really special.

You ever notice that a few days before a birthday party, people ask you, "Hey, what're you gonna do for your birthday?", and afterwards, the people who didn't hear about it beforehand ask you, "What'd you do for your birthday?" or, "Did you get anything good for your birthday?" What the hell could I do on my birthday that's interesting enough that people need to know about it? Nobody ever asks you, "What are you gonna do after you pay your taxes?" or, "How'd you celebrate Boxing Day?" or whatever.

Now, the last day of school would really be something to get excited about, but how many last-day-of-school parties are there in comparison with birthday parties, really? What's the ratio, about 1000 to 1? All this planning, going on for days, weeks, months, whatever, all because someone is getting closer to dieing; it seems kind of pointless, for the most part, and could be better spent celebrating some kid's freedom from the drudgeries of school for a couple months (or forever, depending on how old you are and whether or not you want to go to college).

I guess birthday parties are okay if they're celebrating a milestone in someone's life--you turn 18, you can vote, drive, buy cigarettes, etc.; you turn 21, you can buy alcohol--but if you're turning 37 or whatever, it's not really anything to get too excited about. By that time, your friends are probably wanting to save a little money and just get the candles that have numbers on them. "Instead of getting a bunch of little candles that come in packs of 12, let's just get those numbered candles and put '3' and '7' on top of Ed's cake!" (That is, of course, assuming they even want to buy candles anymore.) A little awkward, don'tcha think?

This probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I'm going to hit the "Post Now" button anyways.