Long weekends can be fun. It can be another day of rest for many or getting paid extra to work. A day off from school. Or it just feels like Sunday again. This morning I wanted to sleep in a little longer. Enjoy the silence a little longer. The kids slept in a little which made me smile. The cats circling waiting for someone. Anyone to make a move so they can get their breakfast.
I spent the weekend studying and getting ahead of school work for this week. I usually never get to celebrate my birthday the day of. But I enjoy a quiet day with food and loved ones. I made it a tradition to do something for the month of or even during special days: anniversary, birthday and sometimes even Christmas. And usually it ends in a body modification. This year being a double helix piercing. I think I started this in about 2015 and from then on. I’ve kept it up every year.
- 2015 dyed my hair pink and kept it pink til about 2018
- 2016 I got my first tattoo
- 2017 was more than I anticipated: another tattoo, nose piercing and shaving one side of my head for giggles. But I did love it.
- 2018 had to cut the pink tips of my hair off. It was the year my son was born and I didn’t attempt a body mod due to breastfeeding. But it felt weird having non colored hair again
- 2019 industrial piercing
- 2020 tattoo
- 2021 cut my own hair that was down my back all of to my above my shoulders
- 2022 double helix piercing: pending more
It’s been interesting these past few years. I like having something to look forward to every year or special day that comes. I have plans for tattoos. Orbital piercings on both sides of my ear. My hair? Well not sure. I’ve always wanted to make it super short or dye it again. The hassle of long hair isn’t my thing anymore. Loved it. But I feel free.
A close friend has this thing that they call a birthday season. They enjoy their birthday and whole month of it. That joy and light in contrast to the way I tried not to think about my birthday for years. It was always cold and dark on my birthday. Winter birthdays are difficult to navigate when you live somewhere cold and snowy. I never made a big deal. Parties became obsolete. To put so much expectations on a single day made it upsetting and so dark.
Their way of celebrating and going out with people they care about and really just enjoying themselves and the new age. Chapter in their lives. Taking the time to reflect really opened me up. I didn’t want to hide my birthday. I’m already aging everyday as is. There’s no shame in it. So I do the body modifications. I make a date with my husband. Gather the people I’m close to up and ask if they would like to go out for dinner to celebrate not only me and but also the new year and what’s to come. Thank you my friend, for showing me this new side of not only birthdays but celebrating myself and my life with others.
Everlasting Sirua 