B4: The day when it was my birthday

From good friends and true,
From old friends and new,
May good luck go with you,
And happiness too.

The day when it was my birthday.

 

Today is a day before I grow a year older, a day older. Every day we grow old, we lose the young us that we can never be. Even though we age every day, we don’t celebrate it. We take the days of our lives for granted. But there is a day, in all of our lives that we mark as the beginning of a new year, new us. The same day ironically is the ending of the age we just lived. So as the saying goes, yes, ‘the ending is the beginning and the beginning is the ending’. As we celebrate the day of our birth, as the new beginning, we should also celebrate every day of our lives, because we grow every day. We grow physically, emotionally, in experience, and personally. 

Tomorrow is my birthday and I shall be 19 years old. It is the year of my last teenage, I won’t be a teenager anymore. I would enter an age where I will not have an excuse of being a teenager to escape my problems and punishments. Even though I am excited to get wishes and gifts and to cut the cake, I am also anxious at the concept of growing old. I know I grow old every day I live, but this day marks how old! 

It is midnight and the clock stroke 12, my friends on the call wished me, “Happy Birthday”, and my siblings sitting next to me wished me, “Happy Birthday”, my parents came rushing to my room and wished me, “Happy Birthday”, my phone’s notification bar filled with, “Happy Birthday”. I saw people wishing me and greeting for it is the day I was born. Many people surprised me and many disappointed me. I wondered what is the reason behind it. Why am I happy by receiving wishes? and why am I upset when they didn’t wish me? It is just like any other day only it is special because a few years ago I was born on this day. 

I liked to see people expressing their affection towards me by reading those captions and text messages. Few mailed me gifts, few send me poems, and few shared our pictures. I realized that there are people for whom I matter and people who matter to me. I feel old but I also feel young. I know I have 19 years of my life gone but a plenty more waiting for me. I don’t have guilt and never shall have. For that I have lived I shall never regret. And for that I have coming my way I shall make the best.  

We are born for a purpose we are unknown to. But we live for it until it is accomplished. We may all have different purposes but we have one thing in common a single lifetime, which is limited yet in abundance. Hence, we should live up to it. Let us all thank the almighty for the lives we have. For the chance at living and for bringing us here. Let us all thank our mother nature for providing for us, for nurturing us. Let us all look around and appreciate all the living and non-living for being with us. Let us all become kind and get the best of our humanity in work. Every sunrise you see be grateful, every sunset you see be grateful, every sound you hear be grateful, every word you speak be grateful, every step you take be grateful, every touch you feel be grateful, every taste you get be grateful, every movement you do be grateful, every breath you take be grateful. 

This birthday, I have promised myself to be grateful to have lived this long, not all come this long, and not all make it this long. I shall be grateful to have lived every other day, I shall live every day in the best way possible, around the people who make it worthwhile. I shall be kind and helpful, productive and useful, happy and successful, and at peace while alive so that I don’t have to search for it when I die. 

I shall keep writing, keep learning, keep reading, keep talking, keep listening, keep eating, keep laughing, keep living. Let us all make our lives worth remembering, do all that we can do, and do all that we must do. Let's live with pride and love. Make every day special, make every day count. Let go of the negativity and things that bother you. 

Every opportunity you get may be the only opportunity. Grab the best one and let go of the one you don’t want. Say ‘YES’ to the good things you want and say ‘NO’ to the things which bring in the dark. We must now count our life by smiles and friends and not tears and years. I know I am going to have a life that is going to speed up. I will have moments where I’ll have to make decisions and choices and I am ready for it. I am ready to ride this roller coaster because I know I have my fellow passengers. I know if I am going down they will be with me and when I rise up they will be with me. 

Let's go down our memory lane and remember when you were taught the nursery rhyme “When You Are Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands”, now how often do we do it. I think I did clap today. Clapped to show my happiness, clapped to feel. It felt alive. When Late Rajesh Khanna Sir said in Anand , “Babu Moshai zindagi badi honi chahiye lambi nahi…..”, a lot of us heard it but never learned it.  Why don’t we celebrate every day of our life for what it is? Why not celebrate every success and every downfall? Why not make our lives large and not think about making them long? Let us make an oath to live every day, to smile every day………

 

To all the readers, thank you for reading, and a very HAPPY NEW DAY!

Once a year we celebrate 
The life we are gifted
Now you are one year older
But your life isn’t over
The thunder in you is rumbling
Make your way through the stumbling
You still have today 
Don’t cry over yesterday
You will get another day
Have a Happy New Day!!!!

By - Humaira Kazi.