I have this habit of deactivating all my social media accounts whenever my birthday is coming up. I keep Messenger, WhatsApp, and iMessage, but everything else goes quiet.
When the day comes, only a few people greet me outside of my family. I guess those are the ones who truly keep me in mind—the people for whom I’m important enough to remember, or at least write my birthday down somewhere. I really appreciate them.
At the same time, I remind myself that some people are like me and have terrible memory. They rely on journals, reminders, or even past social media posts to remember birthdays—even for people they grew up with. Some don’t bother keeping track at all because that’s what social media is for. So when someone like me suddenly disappears and turns everything off, it naturally leaves only a few who reach out.
I am happy that I got to spend my day with family, I enjoyed it a lot because my parents were present! Love that we get to do it again!
My boss also greeted me, which honestly surprised me since we don’t really have a relationship. He said he would’ve sent me home earlier if not for the long meetings and explained that he only lost track of time because of them. He let me leave at 7:30 p.m., even though the workday usually ends at 5. But knowing they stayed in the office until 10 p.m., I of course, appreciated the gesture.
I turned my socials on and of course, they started sending their greetings! I am glad they still did.
Here’s what two of my office girlfriends gave me for my bday!
It still surprises me that one of my close friends since 2005 didn’t greet me. I didn’t greet her either, even though her birthday was the day before mine. I guess I got tired of always being the one to remember when she keeps missing mine, and she also didn’t reach out even though she knew I am sick. I kept seeing her posts, and she looks happy and thriving in her faith and having fun with her new friends, but she never checked on me. That honestly makes me sad. There are friends you don’t want to lose but I guess, things are inevitable as we get older.
Overall, I am happy. I feel loved and still blessed. I am thankful in all circumstances…
LORD JESUS, thank you for everything.
Oof, Have I Told You This Already? 
One response to “Who Just Turned 44?”
Belated happy birthday!
I have to agree that as we age, things change. Friends we’ve known for a long time become distant, people whom we’ve invested time and effort in seem to no longer reciprocate (and honestly it’s exhausting na parang “bakit ako nalang lagi”), and also we learn who are the friends who remember us even without FB to remind.
Ako yung tipong tao that I remember the birthdays of a lot of friends, so it means a lot when I removed that birthday option on FB and still get greetings. It makes us realise who values us enough to note it down (if malimutin sila) and greet (kahit na medyo late, basta may greeting).
And don’t worry, you are not alone in that feeling of “this person didn’t remember me”. Happened to me also a couple months ago on my birthday with some friends na lagi kong binabati. Only a short birthday photo made them remember it (about 2 weeks after), whereas on the day ako bumati sa kanila.
So hugs to you from a fellow “madaling mag-invest, madaling masaktan, and madalas nangdidibdib”. (Not sure about the last one, tho).
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