Birthdays: Shifting Perspectives from Extravagance to Meaningful Moments

Celebrating my birthday in grand style by throwing a huge party with many gifts, people, and a huge cake has always been my dream since I could differentiate between my left and my right, and through the years I've had some remarkable birthday celebrations that have gotten me beaming with smiles and genuine excitement thanks to my parents, but as I grow, my ideology and perspective about birthday celebrations change to not fancying it anymore. Still, my best birthday will be a tribute to this era.

Reminiscing on the past, I remember my family as one that loves making each day a remarkable one for everyone, and when it's our birthday, our parents would do everything within their capacity to make sure we have fun, a day to remember, and much more. Despite not coming from a financial well to do home, my parents would try out every possible divergent to make our own celebration seem as good as those who spend huge amounts on the same.   I could remember that during my childhood I had celebrated some of my birthdays with biscuits being designed to represent the birthday cake as we couldn't afford an actual cake. There were years when mom would even put rice in a small bowl and cover it so the rice could take the shape of the bowl, and once it's solid, she'll gently pour out the rice into a tray to maintain its shape, place it in front of me as the celebrant, then my siblings and I will surround the table with me holding a knife like I want to cut an actual cake, then finally have a photographer capture the moment. Those moments and my parents acts are priceless to me, and I'll live to cherish them throughout my lifetime.

Despite how priceless those moments were, it's still not my best birthday ever, and that's due to my encounters in life as I grow. Like I said, I got to a point in life where I couldn't pinpoint the meaning of life and the significance of celebrating birthdays, probably because of my deteriorating health, so my mindset shifted from wanting an elaborate birthday party to not wanting to have anything to do with its celebration as I see each birthday as a year closer to the grave.

But through the years, as I overcame those depressing moments, I tried to have my birthday become a reminder for me to impact lives around me positively rather than throwing a party. One year, I sat myself down a few weeks before my birthday, thinking of how I could channel my birthday as a medium to impact lives. At the end of the day, I had an idea of visiting the hospital and an orphanage and giving them gifts and food items as a way of celebrating my birthday.     With a budget of 100 thousand naira, I paid a visit to the market to purchase several gifts and food items to be shared with the patients in the hospital and orphans in the orphanage. On my birthday, I took those items first to both locations. I took permission from the matron on duty and went from the ward to the ward, sharing those items with the patients. Once I was done there, I also went to the orphanage to present my gift to the person in charge, who then asked all the orphans to come out and appreciate me for my kind gesture. She even asked if I'd love to take pictures, and I said no, that I only came to give, not to show off.   All my life, I'm not sure I've witnessed something as real as I did that very day. The genuine gratitude and happiness on the faces of those I gifted melt my heart. Never have I felt so important and impactful to someone else's like I did that very day, and believe me, had I been a wealthy man, I would have adopted all the orphans, because although the orphanage is trying, they still look malnourished, and that's something I'd love to change had I had the capability.

But despite my inability to do that, it was a wonderful day in my life and still stands as the very best birthday I've ever had in all of my life. While I would have loved to repeat the same in the next four birthdays that have preceded that one to date, I couldn't because of the pile of responsibilities I got on my shoulders, but I hope to replicate that once again in the near future.

***  That's all for my best birthday ever. I hope you enjoyed the read. This is no fiction, so it's non-fiction but a true story of my life. This is written in response to the @neoxianprompts; to learn more and participate, click on the announcement post.

Thanks so much for your time. Do have a wonderful day.