17

  Once again, that time of year has come along. A little different from last year. The first blog post I made was exactly a year ago. Let's see how much things have changed.
   For starters, I didn't have three birthday parties this time around. I rather prefer it like this. Less hassle on everybody else. I got dibbed by so many people that I lost count. So many people wished me a happy birthday. Thank you all. You've all impacted my life one way or another, and no words can describe the gratitude that I feel. In many ways, this was one of the best birthdays ever.

   I don't mean that because I got so many gifts (which I didn't, again, better this way), but because people were honest with me today. If they felt sad or angry, they didn't cover it up because it was my birthday. They were straight up with me (for the most part). It's always nice to see pure honesty.

   I find it hilarious that I constantly forgot that my birthday was coming up. I wasn't nearly as hyped as I usually am. The previous night, my parents showed me their gift, a brand new bike. It's quite nice, I like it. In the morning, I woke up and got ready, just as any other day. On the bus, it hit me again that it was my birthday. I got to school and the first thing I do when I step into English class, people break out into song, singing the whole "Happy birthday to you..." thing. So, I thank them and move on. Bell rings, go into ToK. What do you think happens? Same thing. They break out into song again. Lunch time comes, and I get this great gift from Navin and tonnes of hugs and everything. During lunch, Eric, Mandy and Benny decide to buy me a cake, and end up getting cupcakes. Being the smart people that they are, not only do they not accept me to pay, they decide to cake me. Afterwards, I go into physics with cake all over my face (Mandy and I decided to keep it on the whole day, a bet which I - after sever skin discolouration - won) and what happens? People break into song. Same thing happens in math. A couple of my Persian boys decided to be smart and started singing the "Happy Birthday" song - in Persian. Good thing none of the teachers minded, in fact, they kinda went with it. After that, choir, and near the end, Amin decides to sing the song again (three times, in fact) and in turn make everyone break out into song. Afterwards, a couple of friends (namely Victor, Erin, Elizabeth, Dimitrijs, Mandy, Matt and Ziming) decided to treat me to dinner. We ate at Vic Hong's (good times stuffing our faces) and after me insisting to pay for at least my own share and the others bluntly refusing, we left for band. We were early, which is always a good thing. But right before band started, guess what happened? Yeah, people broke out into song again. I even heard some of the trumpets attempting to play it. The tubas got it within the first shot of course. Later on, after a rather good rehearsal, I get home, only to find my mother rather angry at me. She rushed to bed quickly afterwards. I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but didn't want to disturb her, so I let her be. Little did I know, she had this plan all along. While I was doing homework (and having a conversation on MSN with a friend, multitasking ftw) at precisely 11:35 PM, she wakes up all of a sudden and breaks into song. Why so late? Because in Iran, with all the time zone changes, that's when my official date of birth way. Of course, if we were still there, it'd be early morning, but here the case is different. We ate cake and had some fun joking around. Overall, an amazing birthday.

   I think what really made this year so special was not my birthday itself, but the days that took up that space between my old birthday and my new one. In one year, I learned and grew (physically and mentally) quite a bit. I learned the true meaning of friendship and found out a new value for how important family is in one's life. Looking back, it was a good 16th year, looking forward to the 17th one. Interesting how we value our own date of birth. Why is that? Is it to show appreciation for that person and tell them on that day that you acknowledge them? Should we not treat one another with respect everyday? Which is why I like it when people don't put this mask of kindness on when it is a special day. Funny how we sometimes lose track of things that are the most important. And how we suddenly turn blind when there are miracles happening right in front of our eyes. Think about it. Right now, you're reading things off a screen coming off of someone else's computer over a vast network called the internet, a thing that would have seemed ridiculous a century ago. Above all else, right now, you're existing. You have full control of everything you do. That itself is amazing.

   Value yourself.