Day 17 - Corporate Birthday Bash!

Birthdays in Corporate America are hilarious!  The older you get, the more lame birthdays become, which really sucks because getting old is hard.  You would think that the older we got the more we would make birthdays "special" because, frankly, we want to look past the fact that we are one year older and party!!!; but no.  That's not how it works.  Celebrating your birthday in the work-place is a chore, and it totally takes the fun out of it!  Here's what I mean:

In school, birthdays were a BFD!  In elementary school you would bring cupcakes for the whole class.  In junior high your mom would drop off McDonald's for lunch.  In high school, your friends would bring you flowers and balloons (or Carly Big Cards) and you would cart them from class to class so that everyone knew the day was all about you!!!  Birthdays were awesome when you were between the ages of 1-18.  Then college came, and birthdays got EVEN BETTER (if that was possible).  Even though you may not have been old enough to legally "celebrate" we always did.  It was the perfect excuse to put on an even skankier outfit than you normally would, drink beer that was more than $9.00 a case, and dance to "Call on Me" with your friends.  And your birthday would usually last an entire weekend.  Now that's celebrating!!

Then the real world hits, and birthdays go down hill...and quick!  I can remember my first birthday in the office.  No balloons.  There were flowers though (thanks to my hubby and my parents).  There were no skany outfits (much to the dismay of my coworkers, I'm sure).  There were no dance parties.  No beer.  Nothing.  Corporate Birthdays are lame.  Our company used to give you a free lunch pass to eat at the cafeteria on your birthday, but they even stopped doing that.  Now, your birthday is just a regular day.  No one says, "Oh it's your birthday?  Then you don't have to come to this terrible meeting today.  Free Pass"  They don't say, "Yay!  It's your birthday.  Why don't you head home early?"  You still have the same old recurring meetings.  You still have the same responsibilities as every other day, it just feels crappier because you want to be celebrating, but instead you are working. 

And maybe I am the only one who feels like this.  Maybe I am the only one who loves when an entire day can be devoted to me!!  I get to pick where we go to lunch.  I pick what we have for dinner.  There are presents and surprises and everything.  I love birthdays - maybe too much.  But really, there are not that many things left in this world to celebrate, so why not make a point of celebrating birthdays??  Embrace the day.  Brag to the world that it's all about you.  Leave early.  Or even take the day off.  But make a point to celebrate you - even if it is at work.  Life is short!!  Enjoy the little things.