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It’s My Birthday Today, and I Have a Few Things To Say

Yay, I’m getting older

Katie Jgln
4 min readSep 23, 2022

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Photo by Fly_dragonfly from AdobeStock

I’m turning 29 today.

Or rather, I already did at 3:30 AM.

My religious parents always used to freak out about it because that’s apparently the ‘devil’s hour’ or something. What a surprise I’m an atheist now, huh?

Anyway. Back to my birthday.

Honestly, I’ve never liked that day.

And no, that’s not because I feel awkward when people sing happy birthday to me. Although yes, I do feel awkward when people sing happy birthday to me.

I’ve never liked it because it’s one of my brothers’ birthday just days after it.

But he’s dead.

And he’s been dead for a good while.

Still, celebrating my birthday with that in mind has always made me feel sort of… guilty.

Each year, my family and I would go to the cemetery on that day and often a few days earlier as well — just after my birthday — to make sure his grave was all clean and in good shape.

And I don’t know if this is how all cemeteries work, but ours — actually one of ours, I have dead relatives in three places — has a separate section for children.

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Katie Jgln
Katie Jgln

Written by Katie Jgln

Social scientist pushing for better humanity. London based. Also at: https://thenoosphere.substack.com

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