My first singleton birthday

June 17, 2015

My first singleton birthday

For the past 22 years of my life I've shared a birthday with my sisters. Naturally, as a consequence of my being a triplet, birthdays have centered on the number three. Three cakes. Three presents. Three cards. Three times as many candles, and one party three times the size.

Yesterday I experienced my first birthday of one.

My sisters are not staying in Greensboro for the entirety of the summer — Lauren is working at an internship at a non-profit in Knoxville and Christin is taking summer classes — so when I came downstairs, my mom sang "Happy Birthday" to just me.

"Happy Birthday dear Eric," she sang, but I'm more familiar with the version "Happy Birthday dear Eric, Lauren, and Christin," and finishing with "Happpppyyyy Birthday to ya'lllll." I aways look forward to the part of the song with our names because everyone says them in a different order, making for a chaotic mess of singing.

There were no jumbled messes yesterday. Although, as when anyone sings "Happy Birthday," there were other melodic infelicities. It's unfortunate that such a common song to be sung en masse contains such troublesome intervals, an octave leap, minor sixth, and Perfect fourth, but that's a blogpost for another day.

Birthdays are rather strange celebrations anyways, so it's usually nice to divide its strangeness among three people. On your birthday, people sing to you, congratulate you, and single you out, and the only requirement is being alive. Which sometimes isn't even required, as with major historical figures like presidents and inventors whose birthdays are still celebrated centuries after their deaths.

Don't get me wrong. I like the attention. The Facebook posts and comments from people you haven't heard from in a long time, and the conversations with people that happen solely because it's your birthday are wonderful. It's nice having a personal holiday. But in practice, I like sharing that holiday with three people. Mainly because you can look at each other while all eyes are on you.