Birthdays.

So as many of you probably already know, yesterday marked my entry into this world, 24 years ago. Pretty hard to believe that I am getting "that old" - I put this in quotes because any time I refer to being old to someone much older than me, they look at me as though I have personally offended them. Which I likely have. But then again, my good friend's mom last night said this to me: "So next year, Meghan, we will have to have a party for you where everyone wears all black because you will be a QUARTER...CENTURY...OLD!!!" Thank you, I expect to also receive over-the-hill balloons and skull & crossbones party favors.


I think birthdays are kind of a funny thing to celebrate. We all celebrate the day that we emerged from our mothers' wombs and began breathing oxygen - and we get cake for this? I mostly think this is silly because I think that babies are pretty dang ugly when they get their first glimpses of the world. As I have described it before, "We basically say 'Good job on coming out of your mom & emerging as a gooey, ugly, alien-looking thing!'" Yes, I too think that the birth of a human is nothing short of miraculous, but you can't deny that the babies look a little scary at first. No one ever sends out a birth announcement of their precious bundle of joy bawling its head off covered in amniotic fluid and looking a little squished. I can tell you right now that at that moment in time, when I am someday in that position, I will not be obsessing over the beauty of my spawn but instead over the relief I have that the trauma is over. I will think they are the most beautiful thing in the world when they are clean & wearing a cute little hat wrapped in a white blanket. And then I will never be able to take my eyes off it.


Don't let my thoughts on birthdays fool you - I simply adore my birthday. I love the phone calls and texts and birthday cards and another day of the year where calories don't count. I love the free drinks and the attention and the gifts. My dad said it best when he said that "birthdays are special because its the one day a year that you are the center of attention" - and no matter how unselfish you are, it totally rocks to have one day be like that each year.


Perhaps my most favorite part about my birthday is how I am reminded each December 23rd how extremely blessed I am. Not because my mom can make a mean cake or because my dad remembered the exact perfume I wanted - but because I am always overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that I receive each year on this day. I love that my birthday, being around the holidays, warrants multiple days of celebration, usually one with my friends from UW and another with my old friends from home.


Last night, my birthday began with dinner with 2 very dear high school friends and their families - I was struck by the fact that I have now lived in Washington long enough to really be close with my friends families, something that, having moved around a lot during my younger years, is something I truly treasure. I got to see my best friend surprise her mom and grandma (she came home for the holidays from Korea and didn't tell them) and that was the best birthday gift I can imagine. So much love.


After, a group of my close friends from high school came to my house - I was dressed in sweatpants, surrounded by people who defined my teenage years, and it was perfect. We talked over beers about the time "the ninjas" floured my friend's car and it rained the next day; about how every time "Chariots of Fire" came on, my guy friends would perform a slow motion battle scene; about prom asking disasters. We also talked about how one of them goes to Harvard Law school, one lives in Washington DC, one is studying at the UW Medical School - we have all grown up so much, it is simply astounding. I get goosebumps thinking about how special it is that I have such wonderful friends from high school who I am still lucky enough to call my friends - at one point, I was just listening to all of them talk, smiling to myself and thinking "I literally have the most awesome friends from high school, hands down."


Although it is terrifying that we are entering into the age where marriages and children and graduate school and homebuying are common practice, I love to know that there are some things that never change. We all need those constants in our lives - those people, memories, places that although we age, they never seem to. 


Birthdays are the days set out of the year to remind you how much people love you. How can you not be overwhelmed by the power of that?


♥mb.