03.16.25

My family always sings “Happy Birthday.” They are sort of insistent upon it. You get a cake or some other dessert and everyone sings for you and you just have to take it on the chin because it’s happenin’, babe. Settle in, we’re singing the whole thing and it’s gonna be slow.

My parents even sing “Happy Birthday” in its entirety to each other, one-on-one on each of their birthdays. They don’t even share the same day, even thought their birthdays are only ten days apart. Each gets their special day.

I have already lightly planned out my birthday plans, even though it is two and a half months away. I want to go to a Mets game on a Sunday afternoon then go back to a bar in my neighborhood that I like. I am debating whether or not to make the Mets game part sort of invite-only, for a smaller/closer group of my friends, or to just say whatever anyone can come hang out. I have to decide how much loose organizing I’m willing to do.

Loose organizing reminds me of the fact that I was the Class President in high school for my senior year. The previous three years I had been the Vice President, and had planned to keep that position, as I had run unopposed, along with all my other Class Officers, our first three years of high school. Then, senior year, Mike Peters’ mom wanted him to get more extracurricular activities under his belt for college applications, and suggested he run for a Class Officer position. He settled on Vice President, and I knew I would be ousted. Mike was more popular than me (rightfully so! Great guy — funny, friendly. There were times when I genuinely felt we were friends as high school kids and I feel grateful for those times. He has a lovely wife and baby now). I negotiated with Andy, our reigning Class President (who I recall referring to as one of my “boyfriends” as a kindergartener on the phone with my grandparents — not important to the story, just a fun fact. I’ve yet to dip my toe back into polyamory as an adult). Why don’t you run for the President of the whole student council, I suggested. You would be elevating to a higher position, you would kind of have more “power.” He agreed to my proposition and was elected Student Council President (unopposed), while I was elected Class President (unopposed) and Mike elected Vice President (unopposed) of the Class of 2014.

All this to say — I would have never done all that wheeling and dealing as a senior in high school if I had been in any way aware of the fact that this decision to run for/be the Class President was as binding as a Supreme Court lifetime appointment. How on Earth am I to believe that I am the right person to shoulder the responsibility of planning all of our reunions until most of us are dead? I see people talk about it on social media and I think to myself, Jesus Christ I swear to God if anyone reaches out to me about this. Are you serious? Why me? I passively took a position on the Maple Hill High School Student Council in 2014 and I have to bear that cross for the rest of my life? How does that make sense? I live over a hundred miles away from my hometown — so many people I graduated with live less than a twenty-minute drive away.

Anyways — I think it’s sweet that my family always sings “Happy Birthday.”