exactly how i feel about my birthday

i never felt the need to make a particularly big deal over my birthday. it comes predictably every year. i never obsess over gifts or the steadily climbing number that i acquire to reflect the number of years i have been aimlessly wandering around this planet Earth. i joke about my "birthday month" but the day itself is virtually inconsequential to me. i read this once & felt it captured exactly the essence of how i see my birthday:

I am very glad I was born and definitely appreciate the ongoing alive status that each birthday brings, but I do not typically get into the animated birthday hoopla spirit. I do recognize, however, that for me it is a fine line between not wanting to make a big deal about my birthday but also wanting family and certain friends to dote enough to satisfy some nebulous quality/quantity acknowledged-my-birthday barometer.

(excerpt from "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, entry titled "Birthday" pg.40-41)