Girls Night #30: How to Start Celebrating (and Stop Dreading!) Your Birthday & Getting Older

In this episode, we share what to do if you’re dreading your next birthday, how to celebrate other people on their birthday, and how to be honest about your birthday expectations.

IN THIS PODCAST EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

Why our birthdays can be so hard
What to do if you’re dreading your next birthday
How to celebrate other people on their birthday
How to give good gifts and what to give
How to be honest with yourself and others about your birthday expectations

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(You can also listen right here!👇)

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Hey friends! Welcome to Girls’ Night!

Our guest for today’s episode is my very best friend, Kelsey Bennett. Kelsey is an AMAZING makeup artist and the Community Coordinator for a missions organization I just love, Experience Mission.

She’s also my person. I say this in the episode but if I had a Board of Advisors in life I’m pretty sure Kels would be the Chairwoman. She’s my favorite person to go to for advice, my wisest counsel, and my favorite friend to laugh with. I’m so excited to share her with you today!

And I’m so excited about today’s topic. Today we’re going to be talking about birthdays.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

Your birthday is coming up, and you want to be excited. It’s your day, after all. It’s a day to celebrate you, and to celebrate your life, and to celebrate with your family and friends. But… “excited” isn’t always our primary emotion when we think about an upcoming birthday.

First of all, there are so many questions that come up when it comes to our birthdays: How do we celebrate them? Do we plan a party for ourselves? Do we wait for someone else to do it? Do we admit that we want to be celebrated? Do we downplay it? And if we downplay it, do we get to feel sad and disappointed when the celebration doesn’t feel as big, as personal, or as special as we were hoping it would?

Birthdays also bring up a whole lot of other things for us. They’re a reminder of the passing of time, a check-in about whether we are where we thought we’d be by this point.

I don’t know if you do this, but I definitely did. I had this idea that by the time I was 25, I’d be married. But that definitely didn’t happen.

We create these timelines in our head. We have this idea of who we should be, and what we should be doing, and when things should happen, and by what age. And that makes our birthdays really tough, because life doesn’t always go according to our plans. (Isn’t that infuriating?!)

I also know that for me, my birthday tends to magnify any loneliness or sadness I have going on in my life.

When Carl and I first moved to Nashville, my birthday magnified the fact that I didn’t have friends here yet. I felt extra lonely on that day. The sting was extra sharp.

And the thing is, I thought this was just me that had a hard time with birthdays. But two birthdays ago, Kelsey and I began talking about it, and we realized we were feeling the exact same way.

I’ve had this conversation with so many girlfriends since, and especially since my girlfriends and I just turned 30, we’ve been talking about this a lot lately. So many of us struggle when it comes to our birthdays, and that’s why I’m so excited about this episode.

After a particularly tough birthday two years ago, Kelsey and I have learned so much. We’ve learned so much about enjoying our birthdays, and we’ve learned so much about handling the hard emotions that can sometimes come along with them.

Also, Kelsey has so much wisdom to share, so much encouragement, and so many practical tips and tricks, I’m so excited to share this with you.