By: Becca Hall [Powwow Executive Editor]
The excitement of a birthday is an interesting phenomenon. Many wait all year for their next birthday often starting a countdown weeks or even months before. While a birthday is definitely a date worthy of celebration, there is usually a huge build-up of anticipation as the big day approaches, but more often than not, the day doesn’t turn out as exciting as imagined. Sure, there is an added year to one’s age, but what else is there?
Americans are often obsessed with instant gratification, something a birthday doesn’t give. A few days before the upcoming date, one often imagines the day only revolving around them. Walking into school or work with everyone they pass wishing them a “Happy Birthday” and handing a big ol’ present, with confetti flying around everywhere they walk. While it may not that extreme, people often have unrealistic expectations about how their celebratory day will pan out. The fact is that it is just a day. The birthday girl or boy is not “another year older” as it is often said, they are just 24 hours older than they were the day before.
Many say that the only “big” birthdays after the age of about twelve (around the time one realizes that birthdays aren’t all that they are chalked up to be) are a sweet sixteen, eighteen and twenty-one. While at 16 one can get their license, an event most have waited for since they were young, many seem to realize that being in control of a large moving vehicle isn’t as fun as it seemed it would be. At 18 one is considered to be an adult in the eyes of the law, but what else can they do? Sure they can back-sass their parents without getting sent to their room, how many people actually do that? The next one is 21, the age that someone can legally gamble and buy alcoholic beverages at their own discretion, it is often stated that again, the age is not all it is made up to be.
In the end, yes a birthday is an exciting annual event, the anticipation of the day often makes a it seem more exciting and riveting than realistic.
