IT’S MY BIRTHDAY, SO WHAT’S THE FUSS?

So today is my birthday and what woke me up was not my alarm but the ringing of my phones. I don’t make Xtracool calls, whoever is calling me should know that, but I think this person will have none of it, the phones ranted on and on like the usually deprived wives of our neighbour, then I had no choice but to pick up one of the errant b*stards; guess who we have here, it was the voice of my class governor blaring through my earpiece into my auditory drums, singing the famous happy birthday song in his croaky and “cacofonixtic” guttural voice that may forever banish the sweet experience that the song once brought when it was sung by Sister Mi and my niece at my last birthday. It was a punishment, but for diplomacy sake, I had to wait it out; lest I tickle a hornet's ire.

After minutes of listening to the raucous rendition, the torture abated and it was time to wish me all the best, well, I listened through that one also and after endless ramblings, the round was over, or so it seem, because the next thing I heard was my 5:58 Alarm, I must have drifted off while he was still at it. I still haven’t called him and I guess I have a massive apology to render. As if on queue, immediately my 5:58 alarm went off, a torrent of Happy birthday text messages flooded my phone like a monsoon and I almost resumed late for work because I had to read through an ocean of messages.

So today’s my birthday, what’s the fuss? I remember days in middle school, I never fancied the fact my birthday coming in during schools holidays, and I never had the chance to come to school with cake, cookies and sweets (as we liked to call it) in my Dad's old Green Audi 100 (Such a faithful car it was), while my classmates brimmed with laughter at the sight of another birthday booty and free lunch. I never had the chance to really show off at school with my new birthday gifts because it would just be alone in my house. It's pointless attempting to woo your siblings.

It was and still is quite funny that since my years of consciousness; and when I say consciousness, I am sure you all know what I mean, I have never had my birthday in our home, I was usually off on a camp or on holiday somewhere, so, more often than not, I tend to forget it’s my birthday, and of course it pays of because it’s a ready excuse for forgetting my siblings birthdays back then; that was before the advent of Facebook of course.

So today is my birthday, Facebook has not done much to help me forget again, and another twist to this year’s is that am not on any camping trip (since I had botched the two youth camps in North Central) and neither am I on holiday because I am on IT. Hence, today is my birthday and I am at work sitting at this desk and working like a buzz saw on a day I should be somewhere between heaven and the Bahamas running with bare-feet on the white sandy shores while sipping away on one of those funny coconut recipes (I wish uh?). *sighs 

But as I sit typing this post, I start to wonder what the use is in celebrating birthdays anyways. Why does this day have to come? But then I sit myself back down and whisper into my own years, “If anything is not worth celebrating, at least you made it out of teenagehood alive, you should roll out drums”.

Well, today is my birthday, or maybe I should say today was my birthday, and it’s closing time at work, I go back home with my back pack fastened securely at my back like any other day of the year and I still find myself asking, what’s the fuss?

PS: Thanks to all my friends on Facebook, poetrysoup.com and naijastories.com who made today such a classic virtual event, much love to you all. And if you had taken your time out to read this blog also, you get Hugs and Kisses for free, coming from me. Much Love, xoxo.