For starters, I technically stopped celebrating my birthday since I turned sixteen. By celebrating I mean no big house party and invitations (cordially supervised by my mom); instead, it’s just me at home with a ShopRite cake. Ever since then, I’ve spent my actual birthday at work and would just “celebrate” with family at home whenever the closest weekend came by. Now that my birthday is coming up, a lot of people have been bringing up that I’m finally turning 21 and can’t wait to celebrate it. Not only are we stuck in quarantine, but I really don’t care about my birthday.
Some people make it a big deal because of course, once you’re 21, you can legally drink. But for me, I don’t drink at all; believe it or not, I really haven’t. So it doesn’t make a difference to me whether or not I can drink. A lot of my friends have been telling me to drink this or drink that, try something new and go crazy. Anytime I tell friends or acquaintances that I don’t drink they’re pretty shocked and tell me that once I turn 21, that’s my time to shine. But that’s just not who I am and I don’t plan on changing myself over adding one more year to my life.
I feel like, in general, I’m pretty reserved when it comes to making plans. I’ve always just gone out to eat or go to events/conferences, never been to a bar or club. I haven’t even gone to an actual party in all of my high school years, let alone a college party. I just know that scene is not mine and I wouldn’t feel comfortable in it. I also have some friends that just get drunk in their dorms, and they just know not to invite me because I would never go over to something like that.
This is just my reminder that I am happy being the way I am, even if it sounds like I’m being snooty or boring to others. Celebrating my 21st birthday isn’t going to be filled with any fun, especially since we’re stuck in quarantine; I’m not even going to get to “celebrate” it with family and share a boring ice cream cake from ShopRite.
I always say that if I ever picture myself drinking, I hope that I’m out at a five-star rooftop club in the city wearing a silky slip-on dress with wine in my hand, rocking the iconic Kim Kardashian slicked-back hair look. I know you just imagined it yourself, and who wouldn’t want to lose their alcohol virginity looking like that?