A rite of passage for Chi Chi.

Image is mine

The thing with birthdays is, it's usually an all in one celebration for me. It is also one that counts as a celebration of life, as well as a reunion between friends, families and loved ones.

Personally, I have never viewed birthdays as important. Probably because my parents never laid emphasis on it. Well, in my mom's defense, she said that her mother never celebrated birthdays so she didn't feel the need to. My father however remains indifferent towards the celebration.

Well, it wasn't until recently that my mother started seeing the importance of birthdays and this has rubbed off on me too. According to my mommy and her epiphany, birthdays are the one celebration that humans get to witness from their childhood up until the remaining part of their adult years. So why not celebrate it?

It's even funny that close friends do not know my birthday because it's not something that I share or make public. However, last year I dared to be different. I made my birthday public and the attention was overwhelming. I was loud about my birthday and the response I got from well wishers were twice as loud. I felt loved and indeed I felt appreciated. While I crawled back to my shell afterwards drained, the memory was one that will always bring happy thoughts for me. Would I be repeating the same pattern this year? Well, let's see how high my energy gets because last year I was pumped lol.

Going back to the celebrations, I'd say that regardless of not celebrating mine like some do, I had always celebrated my daughter's. Although I skipped about two of her birthdays, her 5th wasn't one that I could skip. I wasn't even aware initially that my daughter's 5th birthday was a rite of passage for her. Being the youngest in her class, she sometimes has to deal with segregation as the older classmates being 6 identified her as a baby. She was 4 at the time and when she was about turning 5, her classmates didn't believe her. They told her that the only way they would believe her is if she has a birthday party in school.

That period I was ill and due to my health I had concluded to not celebrate her birthday. Not until my mom came back from school run and told me that my daughter's classmates interrogated her if truly my daughter would be 5 and if she was having a party. After listening to my mother's narration, my illness subsided almost immediately. No child of mine will be tagged a liar nor made the odd one out. No longer feeling as sickly as I was, I started sourcing for party items for her birthday that was days away.

I did get all that was needed including a big cake to make a statement lol. On the deal day when I arrived at her school, there were murmurs amongst her peers. I could hear Whispers like, "so Chidera was telling the truth?"

While I walked to her teacher's office, my daughter sighted me and ran to give me a hug. She kept screaming to everyone, "look at my mommy, have you seen my mommy? Today is my birthday and that's my cake".

My daughter was visibly happy and that uplifted my spirit. And as they prepared a spot for her cake and drinks, I could hear her again bragging to her friends, telling them "look at my big cake, and my plenty drinks". Then she turned to one of her peers and said, "next time that you call me a liar, no birthday cake for you." We all laughed and positioned for pictures and then went on to devour the cake and drink.

I earlier mentioned 5th was like a rite of passage for her. Immediately it got to her birth month, she mentioned to me that she would be having two birthdays. I did not take her seriously till she went on holiday at my aunts. She did not hesitate to inform them that it was her birth month and wouldn't mind a party.

My aunts who would never miss out on the opportunity of having a party, threw my daughter another big batch.

For my daughter, I think it was like a feast but to me, it did not end as just a birthday party but it doubled as a family reunion.

While I still would prefer to go low key on my birthdays and just take it as a day to reflect on my life and various achievements, I really do enjoy being a part of others, eating, drinking and not missing out on any of the fun.