Unfortunately, a few of my birthdays sucked. With the 2008 birthday being the worst birthday ever! It had nothing to do with the day itself, but more about my life in general and the people I chose to hang out with most of the time.

I even cried on one or two of my birthdays. Eek!

It was a mix of my efforts to fit in by pleasing the wrong crowd, high expectations, and douche-bag exes.

Retrospectively, it was silly and I wished I’d celebrate it with a lighter happier heart. God knows I had so many things worth celebrating of another age. I didn’t and I can’t turn back time now, can I?

Anyway, after the unhappy birthday series, I played it cool by not celebrating at all or just the minimum to please my parents for giving birth and raising me. To think about it, my birthdays as a kid/YA were more of their accomplishment than my own. I was on the “yes, it’s my birthday and no, it’s not a big deal” phase for a few years until I realized no, it wasn’t making me happy either!

I was a hard birthday-girl to please. That’s when I decided that I will always celebrate my birthdays.