Birthdays Can Be Great

Birthdays Can Be Great  (E) My Birthdays as a Youth #1151475 by Gamma Jill

Birthdays were suppose to be extra special for a child. But mine seemed to lack that happiness. We were only allowed parties on our 12th and 16th birthdays. The one on our 12th was suppose to be a sleep over and I never had many friends, much less ones to sleep over. My parents were having financial problems at the time; who wouldn't with 10 kids to raise and feed and support. So I was only allowed to have a party where they would come over and eat and then leave a couple of hours later. I wasn't liked by many, so it took me forever to think of anyone to even have over. If I remember correctly, I may have had 5 girls over. Somehow I feel there were less though and only two stand out in my memory.

I remember that we had sloppy joe's, fruit cocktail salad and chips for the dinner. As usual we had a chocolate birthday cake, cause that was always my favorite type of cake. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves during the meal, and "YES" I did get gifts, although none of them stand out in my mind at this time. I do remember that one of them looked like a slightly broken toy that one of the girls gave me from her toys.

So why so sad sounding? Because it wasn't lots of fun, the girls didn't want to do much of anything and they seemed to have been bored all the time. They felt that my games were too young for them. At this time, I am not really sure that they would have come over for it if it weren't for the fact that I gave them an invite. And then my father started to ask them all about their religions, and started telling them about ours. It scared them all quite a bit. He would always do this to my friends. I do remember sitting quietly, totally embarrassed about this. Wishing that I could die and it would be all over.

They never talked about it the next day at school, like they would do for other parties. Which lead me to feel that the whole party was a failure. I was never invited over to their houses for their party's after mine. I wasn't really surprised though, I had only been invited over to one other girls party "ever" before this. Party's that were more talked about after they occured. Other than that, most of the birthday's were just family and nothing much to brag about there anyhow.

So tell me: What is so great about birthdays anyhow??? To me, they are just another day of the year. The only difference was that I got to pick out the meal and the kind of cake for this one day. They usually made me sad in some way. And as I got older would usually end up having some kind of arguement over something. It has only been as an adult now that I can enjoy my day. Even though it still is usually just an ordinary day with some presents thrown in. However, I do have some now that are happier and more enjoyable and much more memorable. I guess the saying goes, "It's better late than never", has proven to be my proof that sometimes, birthdays can be great.

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