My Birthday Week
BY KARDELEN KALA (TRIN/PREP)
kala@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Bonjour everyone. I am, as always, addressing you from the past. It is a little side effect of having a deadline. Where I am now, it is Friday, February 25, just a few days before my first midterm exam, and I am rather stressed. So I figured that writing about a topic that makes me feel happy would work wonders and perhaps motivate my ever-panicking self to study effectively. And of course, I chose to talk about the one thing in March that makes me extremely happy, my birthday.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved my birthday, perhaps unreasonably so. I would start the countdown on February 10, and actually bore everyone around me to death, especially during what I called my "birthday week." There was (is) something about the fact that my birthday was so close that made me feel very good. I would harass my parents and school friends with ever-changing, detailed celebration plans, get myself very excited about the prospect of presents (I love presents; I do not know anyone who does not, or rather I do not believe anyone who claims so), I would even start window-shopping for birthday cakes. Well, yes, I openly admit to my obsession with my birthday.
I don't what it is that I like so much about that day. It's insignificant, when you think about it, superfluous, useless, made-up. I can go on and on. My birth was probably one of the least important things that happened in the world on March 10, 1991. Hundreds of millions of people go about their usual routine each year, unaware that someone called Kardelen of the astrological sign of Pisces in a far away country is feeling rather special that day.
I really cannot explain it, but I do know that having a good time on my birthday is important to me. I remember having to spend one particular birthday working all night to complete an impossible math assignment, all the while trying to keep myself from bursting into tears. During my exchange year, while many of my friends were worried about spending Christmas or bayram holidays away from their families, all I cared about was my birthday. It's a little embarrassing, but I was afraid that nothing special would happen at all. I am glad to say that this was not the case.
When I talk about my birthday in such a manner, many people think that I am dropping not-so-little hints so that they would get me a present or something like that, but I swear this is not the case. I just genuinely enjoy having a day in the year that means something only to me (well, except the thousands who share my birthday, but I do not know them; nor do they know me), as well as sharing this feeling with the people around me. So excuse me this week (well, theoretically two weeks from now), if I go overboard with the b-day talk! And, Happy Birthday to everyone who shares my birthday week, of course.