FLAG DAY 🇺🇸

No I don’t hate Flag Day, No I don’t hate my birthday, I hate other people’s expectations of how I should spend the day. (BTW I will be standing in line at DMV part of it.)

 
Of course, it wasn’t always this way. When I was younger, I (like any normal kid) used to look forward to my birthday with much anticipation, eagerly expecting the cakes, drinks and other confectionery that was served during the celebration. Born on a secondary holiday, my mother, grandmothers and aunts used to go crazy with flag cakes ,flag wrapping paper, flag shirts, flag cards. If you could get it in red,white and blue I got it.
I think the link was broken the summer I turned 15 and had my first summer job. Because my birthday falls in June from that point forward I had always been working. Birthdays were no longer a star attraction for me, and this indifference towards my birthday morphed into antipathy towards it during my latter years.
I mean, if you really look at it, the things worth celebrating are the things or events that remind you of a time of happiness… or a time of triumph over adversity… or they mark a stage; so there are events that I can certainly see worth celebrating because they fill you with happiness.

 
BUT I must say, with my birthday today  I have checked the p.o.box more then usual …. would there be a “Flag Card” from Aunt Lil or that yellow slip which signals a package to be picked up?

 
In fact, if anything, my mother should be celebrating it, not me ! Because not only did she have to put up with nine months of pregnancy with a husband in the navy, she also endured several hours of very painful childbirth!(as I am always reminded of) So that being said this should be my mother and fathers special day. I can not say as their first-born whether the dreams and aspirations they had for me that hot and humid June day have been fulfilled . But I can say that on another hot humid June Day forty + years ago a small plain white box (with a red,white and blue ribbon) held a key with a hand painted key chain which still today brings a smile to my face and reminds me that my birthday is the day to reflect on what I can do to fulfill those dreams and aspirations!