Celebrating Birthdays!

Unit: Celebrations!

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, I’m Taylor Vogel and this is Now That I’m Not Your Teacher. Each week we’ll explore an aspect of adulting that you might have missed in school. Since I used to be a teacher, I’ll structure it in ways that are proven to help you retain information. But since I’m not your teacher anymore, I can approach it in a way that’s honest and sometimes inappropriate for a classroom.

In this week’s unit, we’re talking celebrations! Today, we’ll toss around a few ideas for celebrating birthdays!

Have you ever been in charge of planning a birthday celebration for someone? It can be a lot: stressful, expensive, time-consuming, and a pretty disappointing miss if it’s not done right. That’s a lot of pressure! So today, we’re going to step awayyy from the birthday party, and brainstorm a few other ways to celebrate someone’s escape from the womb.

Step one in celebrating a birthday? Define the motivation. Do you want for this person to feel a tiny sparkle? That can be accomplished with one on one time and the perfect playlist. Maybe a small treat from that popcorn place that they love but is too expensive for every Sunday night movie night. What if you know that person has had a really hard year and they just want to escape for a little while? Breaking out of the ordinary is the perfect way to go. Roller skating together in their favorite park, cooking a new recipe together (and having takeout on hand as a backup), or watching a movie on a projector in the backyard as opposed to on the couch again, are all things that feel special and out of the norm. If their motivation is to be able to share their joy on social media, then gather props and sparkle and have a photo shoot. All of these things are valid and life giving. All of these things can celebrate birthdays.

So, who’s up next on the birthday list? How can you celebrate them in a way that makes them feel loved and joyful?

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