So when your birthday is close by, how do you feel? 

It depends, of course on lots of factors.

Some people get excited at the prospect of turning a new age, especially when this new age comes with nice expectations and fulfillment of things they've been promised once they attain a certain age. To them, birthdays are something to look forward to. It is time to be so excited that sleep rarely gets the chance to trouble the eyes on the eve of their birthday.

To some others , birthdays come with guilt. Guilt borne from unaccomplishment. Birthdays comes with self loathe, self pity and feeling unworthy. They question their time on earth, what they have achieved with all the years they have lived. They rarely tell anyone that it is their birthday, and in this era where social media brings reminders of such events, they silently wish that no one calls or texts them on that day, such wishes are unappreciated.

And then, there are others, who, despite the storms in their lives have found a way to genuinely defeat the taunts of self reproach, and go on to celebrate whatever little victory life offered them. They remind people of their birthdays and go as far as celebrating it with the little they have. Anyone could be forgiven for laughing at them for the meager things they bring out as their birthday celebration, but then when you watch them closely, you'll notice that their laughter comes from a place of triumph. They dance in the rain. They are grateful, not just to be alive on their birthdays, but also for many other little things that might sound funny to you, if they begin to talk about it. They are larger than life. 

Let me also remind us, that there those who have the material things they want but happiness elude them. I can never talk much about these people, because they don't understand why they're not happy,  and neither do I. 

Ironically, they're the ones that will help you appreciate the happy ones, who celebrate life despite having little or nothing.

Now back to these type of people we're talking about in this paragraph, life is a miserable thing that coasts by each day and they can't wait for it to end. To them every thing is boring, and they'll rather carry some dark, heavy thoughts in their mind than spend time being happy on their birthdays. There is a saying that we all live a little and die, and these type of people are really looking forward to it. Making the saying a fact: not all that glitters is gold. 

Indeed, life is what you make of it, and birthdays are exactly what you want it to be.