Like any other little kid, I wanted to have a birthday party with all of my friends on my actual birthday. However, this was very difficult (and never happened) because my birthday is December 26th. I was never able to have a birthday party around or on my birthday because most people were still away, or just still at home spending time with their families. This was sometimes hard because I just wanted to be like the other children and have a birthday party. I mean that's not too much to ask for, right?

Unfortunately, the birthday party thing was not the only thing I ran into. A few of my family members tried to always say that my Christmas gift was also my birthday gift, even though they were on completely separate days. I always felt jipped because everyone else would always get two completely separate gifts for their birthday and Christmas. However, my parents always made sure everything was completely separate and I honestly commend them for that because it made my birthday a little more meaningful as a child.

On top of the whole gift and birthday party thing, I also always got this expression from people when they found out my birthday is the day after Christmas. The look kind of said "oh you poor soul" and then they would then proceed to say "oh, you must get jipped on presents" and then I would say "no my parents keep it completely separate and some relatives do too." IT WOULD GO THE SAME WAY EVERY TIME.

However, when I was younger, there were so many perks of having my birthday when it was. I always laughed at the other children because they had to be in school on their birthday and I NEVER had school on my birthday. I also didn't have to wait for a while to get my Christmas or my birthday presents, which was nice because I got them all almost at once. Also, as I got older and people would just give my money for my birthday and Christmas, I always loved going shopping on my birthday because many of the stores were having really good sales at the time.

After 20 (almost 21) years, I have not really minded having my birthday on December 26th because I get to be with my entire family for an extra day because we are already together. I have really grown to appreciate this because I get to have all of the people that I care about with me on my birthday. On top of all of this, I will probably never have to work on my birthday because I will own my own company one day (and I currently work for my father) so it all works out in the end and I couldn't be happier.