Birthday Brood

I got high yesterday and came to the 'realization' that I generally feel ashamed celebrating a birthday. I like the perks of a solo anniversary - forcing people to hang out with me, getting to choose what we have for dinner, etc - but I feel uncomfortable at the idea that everyone should submit themselves to me for 24-hours for no serious reason. As a species we've taken the struggle to survive out of our day to day regiment, so to me aging really doesn't feel like an accomplishment worth mentioning. In early high school I dated a Jehovah's Witness for about a week, and in that week he came up to me and said, "Today is my birthday, not that it matters"; I don't act like that but when I want to reference something that happened the same date that I was born, especially if that date was within the past week, more often than not I'll leave the holiday element out of the retelling.

I wondered if there was another, more innate reasoning behind my discomfort. Do I really dislike birthdays because the people of my heritage prefer to celebrate saint-related Name Days? Or because birthdays were invented by a defunct cult? Maybe, after 19 conscious years, I'm bored of constantly celebrating other people's special day and reflect upon it when it's time to deal with mine.

These are all things to consider as you download the lightly-Birthday-themed episode of Treat Me Rough, which aired Tuesday on AUP Radio. The 56 minute MP3 is available today.