Why being birthday is the most fun thing in the world

Guys, I'M TURNING 18 TOMORROW! When Jet saw this post in the planning, she immediately said: “Ehm Lies, didn’t you write exactly this kind of story last year?” Well, that might very well be true, but I'm going to do it again because being birthday is the absolute best thing there is.

Actually, I had planned to put a kind of big countdown system here on the site, counting down to June 18, but May put a stop to that (dammit). I’m really looking forward to my birthday like a little kid and I always get a bit nervous in the days leading up to it. So yes, that’s happening now too. Tomorrow evening I’m going out to eat with my dearest friends, girlfriends, father, and little sister at Buffet van Odette, my favorite restaurant on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. Under a white awning, with heat lamps on, and then a lot of delicious food and white wine. So that alone is reason enough to love being birthday: all the people you love around you.

But the fun starts at 00:00, when the first texts or calls come in. Maybe I’ll really show myself as a terrible narcissist who is so happy to finally be in the spotlight for once, but I don’t think that’s quite it. It’s more that I find it so heartwarming to receive all those nice messages from people I like, even though I haven’t spoken to them in a thousand years.

Anyone who wants to come sing a song is definitely welcome to bike by Odette

And yes, I really know that people only know when it’s my birthday because Facebook tells them that (and because I tell them myself, by the way, over and over again every day), but that doesn’t make it any less fun. A simple “happy birthday” from a random high school friend I probably wouldn’t even say hello to in daily life already makes me happy. I’m that easy.

To receive gifts I honestly haven’t cared about for years. As in: being pleasantly surprised with something nice is always great, but I don’t have a wish list and not really big wishes either. Besides, I’m very easy to please because give me a sheet of cat stickers (I got that from Joss in Singapore) and I’m genuinely over the moon, or a plush Olaf and you won’t have a child on your hands for days.

All in all, being birthday is definitely my hobby and I think it’s a shame that as a person you can only blow out the candles once a year. But at least tomorrow I can. Anyone who wants to come sing a song is definitely welcome to bike by Odette, and who knows, you might even get a piece of sticky toffee cake to take home. That’s just how I am. And you know what else I am? ALMOST BIRTHDAY!!!!