Birthdays. Age.
By: Saras Agrawal
Tags: Philosophy, Age, Celebration, Questions, Birthday

A birthday. A celebration, a day of honour, and an idea.

While 89% of Americans say that their birthday is important to them, the idea of ‘birthday’ is truly just an idea.

The Problem with Birthdays

The problem with age, is the idea that a year is the same time, everytime, and that the number of times the earth makes it around the sun has something to do with how you grow, think, and become agedly. But the thing is first of all years are not exactly 365 days long. But you probably knew this, you’re thinking duh, there are are 365 and a quarter days in a year. Okay so say we have someone born at 12:00 pm on December 9th, 2006, let’s call them Sophia. If Sophia was born on that day, today you would say she’d be turning 14. But by the logic displayed earlier, there are actually 365.25 days in a year, so that would mean that Sophia’s 14th set of 365 days was actually on Dec 6th at 12 a.m.. But, still this date would be wrong. There are actually 365.24 days in the year, the reason for the centennial leap year skip. So, in technicality Sophia’s birthday this year would be on December 6th at 12:06:14 a.m. So when she is 100 hundred, her actual anniversary of her birthday would be well into the month of November!

What is Age? Actually.

But, in truth a birthday is just celebration of a calendar day. The true problem with using the idea of birthday is the association of responsibility, and ‘age’. Age is an interesting idea. But, its just that, an idea. In truth, age is not a law of physics, or something definite. Rather, its a milestone. People expect people to be something, somewhere, or somehow when they reach a certain age. But age is just the idea of a milestone. Every ‘year’ represents the end of a part of your life for the next. If someone told you when you were born, “hey, you are born today, and will die in 92 years” you only have a deadline. But as humans, how can we track our progress, how can be separate those 92 years into extremely different parts. Age. Age is not just a number. Its a mini deadline within your life, in order to meet the goals you set before that final one. The beauty of birthdays and age, is you know when they are. We don’t know when we’ll die. But we do know when we turn 18, when we turn 50, when we turn 70. Those deadlines are their. And therefore so are our goal setting deadlines. And so, in the sense of the idea ‘age’ is flawed. No, age is a self goal setter, not a societal one. Nobody has the right to tell you who you should be, or what you should be when you turn a certain age. But the idea of being ashamed of your age, or longing to grow faster is also flawed. Instead of wanting more responsibility, or a better job, for the next year, set a goal for yourself to be ready for that job or responsibility when it comes. Put yourself in the e position for success. You want a new job? Build your resume, volunteer, do extra projects. Don’t expect it to come to you. You want to be 18? Act like your are. Learn what it means to take care of yourself and be responsible. Get a job, start a project, make your own food. Building yourself to achieve goals set on the deadlines of age is important, in order to be that ideal self by that final deadline.

The Importance

The beauty of age is the fact that it is definite. It gives you something to live by, and set your goals towards. Age is not just a number. Its the deadlines that make up the significance of the goals and steps achieved in order to get to that ultimate self. The beauty of that is, the only time we will look back is when we reach that final one. So I ask you to do this one thing every birthday; take your notepad out. Close your eyes. What were your biggest accomplishments of this year? Failures? Now take a minute to look at that list. Are you happy with that? Now reflect. Is this where you want to be? Now imagine your ideal self. What can you do for this next year in order to be that person? When you reach that final deadline, who do you want to be? Don’t let age hold you back. But, don’t ignore it. Its in human nature to simplify life. Age breaks up time. Don’t let age just pass by.