“Happy birthday to you!”
It’s usually a phrase you hear sung by friends and family on the one day of the year where it’s all about you.
But this year is a little different.
In March, when COVID-19 began sweeping across Canada and causing stay-at-home orders to be put in place, birthdays started going slightly downhill.
For example, my brother turned 16 on March 23, but he stayed inside and ordered takeout. Instead of going to dinner with friends or going to the Department of Motor Vehicle to get his beginner’s licence — he was inside.
My birthday was May 1 and I turned 20. Twenty is a pretty big milestone, and my birthday was on a Friday. Friday birthdays don’t happen often, but they’re quite fun when you’re of-age and able to go out and celebrate. But I stayed inside. We ordered takeout and I responded to birthday wishes from friends and family over text message.
It was great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not the same.
You get a gift card or two and then realize — wait, I can’t spend these.
You get a text that says, “Happy Birthday, sending hugs!” But all you want is a real hug from someone outside your immediate bubble.
A lot of my friends have summer birthdays and will go through the exact same feeling of loneliness on their special day.
Some of my friends have their 19th birthday which is a big one for us Nova Scotians. You can finally go to a bar and explore something new that you didn’t have before.
And what about the little kids having birthdays during this? I talked to my little cousin on my birthday. He understands to the best of his ability what’s happening in the world right now, but it’s hard for a kid to imagine that they won’t have that fun day where you see your friends and family and celebrate with cake and celebrations.
The conversation went something like this:
“Happy birthday Hannah! Your birthday is in the winter (to be fair, it was snowing on May 1) and my birthday is in the summer.”
His birthday is in July.
“For your birthday, we can’t have a party yet. For my birthday, we’ll have a big party.”
I smile and nod because he seems so hopeful, but all I can think is, “let’s hope so.”
For those with milestone birthdays like 30, 40, 50, 60 — it’s usually a more celebratory day, but until the world reopens, it might just feel like “another day.”
For anyone with a birthday, no matter the age, it must be hard to not be able to visit friends and family. Especially for those that live alone. Usually if you live alone, you still have friends and family that you see for special occasions like your birthday, but not this year.
Compared to all of the problems happening in the world right now, including loss and sickness from the spiralling COVID-19, not being able to be with friends on your birthday seems like a silly thing to complain about.
It was great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not the same.
But I just remember around the time of my 16th birthday when I went to get my beginners. I was so excited, I knew the information like the back of my hand, and I passed. I took that shiny new card with the less-than-flattering photo and paraded it with pride. I got to get behind the wheel, despite being terrified, and drive for the first time. While it might not seem like the worst thing to miss out on, for a 16-year-old, that is a big deal.
This year, birthdays are a little different. However, it’s in the interest of keeping everyone in our communities safe and healthy.
It’s not that birthdays aren’t still good, because they are. I saw videos online of people having cars driving by their houses in a little birthday parade. And that’s so cool. So, it’s not that it isn’t great, it’s just different.
Although you may not have had the best birthday celebration this year if your birthday fell after March, know that all of your loved ones wish they could be there to celebrate with you.
And for those who are spending their birthdays without friends or family around, know that you’ve got a friend in me and I’ll be singing “Happy Birthday” to you from the comfort of my own living room.
Hannah Rudderham is a graduate of Riverview High School in Coxheath. She is studying digital journalism and new media at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B.
