Mis Cupleanos – My Brithday

I have had a lot of birthdays in my life, and now at the ripe old age of 46, I have the unique perspective of a man in his middle years, able to look back at my youth with discretion and forward to my old age with hope.  I have had birthdays where I have gotten cool gifts, like a skateboard, a car or a trip to see the Chicago Bears play in person.  I had had birthday cakes, I have had surprise parties and I have been wined and dined and spoiled at great length.  Yet, I have never had a birthday in Santiago Chile, let alone in South America.

I can remember some birthdays well, and the celebration that a birthday brings is always my favorite day of the year.  To me, I enjoy my birthday more than Christmas, more than New Years, and more than Thanksgiving.  It’s not that I have problems with other holidays; it’s just that a birthday, especially one’s own birthday, is a solitary and special event, a unique day set aside to celebrate one’s birth and the incredible gift and you of life.   A birthday marks your time and brings forward new and exciting situations and circumstances in your life.

As my birthday is in October, and this means the fall in North America, my birthday cakes were usually decorated with orange, brown and red colors, which seemed to represent the changing leaves gently turning in the beauty of autumn.  My presents have generally been things that are associated with the fall, such as a football, or the coming of winter, such as a snowboard.

I have had birthdays that that signaled the freedom of adolescence (16 and 18), the acknowledgement of being an adult (21), the prospect of true adulthood (30) and the freedom of growing older (40).  Even when I turned 45, this was just a point along the way, and now as I turn 46, I see myself cresting the hill and from my high vantage point, I can gain some perspective.  Yet, somehow, the future does see different, but I believe the rest of the ride will be great.

I have never been too concerned with growing old, I just hoped that I would live long enough to see all the phases of my life.  I see this birthday in Chile not as an end, but as a signal for a new beginning. For if I can still achieve a first on my 46^th birthday, there surely must be more to follow.