I’m not a big fan of birthdays. Apparently, I’m not alone…a search of “I don’t like birthdays” resulted in many hits.
To me, birthdays are often like other holidays in which a lot of anticipation, planning and preparation lead to pressure to have a great time. To be happy, whether you are or not. While I appreciate when friends reach out and wish me a happy day, I took the reminder off Facebook. I don’t usually post on friends’ walls for theirs; I prefer to send good wishes in a more personal way.
On the other hand, each birthday is a milestone, and I think worthy of acknowledgement and celebration. So I’m going to set my full plate aside and take most of the day off. Which, even though I know we all deserve time off in general and in particular on our special day, still induces twinges of guilt. It’s hard for me to set aside my feelancer drill, “The more you work, the more you’ll work.” Intellectually I know that even going on a vacation won’t undermine my career or bring the flow of auditions/jobs to a screeching halt. I know that we all need to refill our creative wells. But it’s a challenge for me to let go of the need to keep moving forward.
I’ll ignore approaching deadlines, a growing to do list (including contest entries to judge, lines/songs to learn for a musical revue performance, manuscript revisions and publicity/promotion preparation for my soon to be released co-authored non-fiction project) and enjoy the fun events I’ve planned.
How do you choose to celebrate your birthday?
