Out with the Old

Yesterday was my 28th birthday.

For most people a birthday is a time of celebration, and while I have had celebratory birthdays, my birthdays have been first and foremost a time of contemplation. It's another year gone, the startling realization that I am now one year older, and a checkpoint in my life.

I wrote a blog entry years ago about my birthday.

Birthdays are:

1) An inventory of all your "real" friends vs. your "fake" friends. It's funny how a guy you dated 5 years ago sends you a MSN at midnight and says "Is it too early to wish you a Happy Birthday?" while people that enthusiastically claim to 'love me' don't even send me a Good Morning.

2) A status report on your current place in life, and if you've done everything youre supposed to do by such and such age, and then seeing a disturbing amount of checks in the "nope" column.

3) The sad resignation that you have no control over the events of this day in your life, and must meekly nod and smile when everyone assumes they know what you REALLY want to do.

4) The unsettling social commentary that most of your "gifts" are in bottles

Birthdays suck.

And I realized something. I am in complete control of these things. I don't need to surround myself by "fake friends". I need to start making more of an effort to check boxes in my "Yep" column.

So I did something I've often wanted to do, but never had the guts to. I purged my Facebook friends list last night, aided by a bottle of wine and the knowledge that most of these people wouldn't even notice.

It was the most liberating thing I've ever done on a birthday and I feel 50 friends lighter.