It was my birthday yesterday and to be honest I’m one of those awkward birthday people. I’m never sure how to react to people being nice to me solely because I was born today…a few years ago.
Also I just don’t know how genuine any sentiment made through prompting from social media could really be.
This year I decided to stop being such a Debby downer (no offence to any optimistic Debby’s) and just take all the messages and calls and things as what they were “NICE”.
Except for the people who text HBD…that’s not nice…Dude how lazy are you?!? What’s HBD? Is that a tv channel? Is there a show on about lazy people?
My Dad’s family (his siblings and their kids) have a tradition that on birthdays we all get together and more often than not at least two people will get up and say why we as a family love and appreciate the birthday boy/girl (when Rob joined our family this freaked him out…He comes from a head nod, fist bump, love is implied family…so our sentimentality must have been very awkward).
Anyway yesterday I listened to those taking about me and decided to own their sentiments.
I decided to accept the compliments from my cousins and from friends calling,emailing,messaging and writing on my wall.
I decided to sift through the comments that felt “dictated by social norms” and read what message was coming through. “What would people be saying in my obituary?” and am I okay with that?
I got a lot of words like inspiring and encouraging (stifle an eye roll) loads of creative and funny (whaaaat) and even a couple of beautiful’s thrown in (side eye)
I decided not to be a bully to Eleanor on her birthday this year so I didn’t tell her that people just say things for the sake of saying things…maybe some of those messages were not heartfelt but most of them were (I’d like to think) maybe I have inspired or encouraged perhaps my creativity and humor are pluses and in the right light (with the right filter hahaha) I could be considered attractive.
I’m still uncomfortable with compliments, but this year I decided to own it! I work pretty hard at not being a jerk, so why shouldn’t I be okay with people saying…. good work on not being a jerk?
Anyway I’ve received some really heartfelt messages this year and think I’ll take it as a progress report…. I can always improve but the grade is not that sucky…
Thanks to everyone who made my birthday special. I appreciate you!!!
"Except for the people who text HBD…that's not nice…Dude how lazy are you?!? What's HBD? Is that a tv channel? Is there a show on about lazy people?" THIS! Seriously right. What the hell. You made me chuckle here… glad you embraced your special day. Birthdays are awesomeness supreme <3
its already practically free…live a little add an emoji lol
Being the over-thinker that I am this just hit home in so many places, what would people be saying once we gone…. Ps. Those HBD people get deleted and blocked that lazy no one can be
Happy happy Birthday to you! I hope you have a wonderful year of not bullying Eleanor .
Compliments makes me feel uneasy too…and I hate it when people make a fuss over my birthday… Happy belated birthday tho!!
Hey that's def one way of uncluttering my newsfeed
Thanks so much Cat
Thank you so much 🙂