Being a "birthday person" with a summer birthday has always been annoying. I love celebrating — not just myself, but everyone around me. My May 29th birthday has always fallen during finals, move out and graduation. I have never gotten to celebrate my birthday with my college friends until this year.
At SEC schools, or southern schools in general, 21st birthday parties are a production. GroupMe's with 100+ people, balloon arches, banners, decorated bottles, personalized stickers, snacks and most importantly: the shotbook.
The shotbook is a scrapbook that your friends decorate and unveil to you at the party in front of everyone. Each friend makes a page in the book with pictures and notes about your friendship, adventures and inside jokes. The birthday girl sits at the front of the room for the reveal and looks through the book. One by one, each friend gets their turn to show their page, read it together and take pictures. The process sounds silly, but the chaos, excitement and sentiment is what makes it special. All of your friends came together and put in effort to celebrate you. By the last page of the book, everyone has cried from laughter or gratitude.
I was so sad that I was going to miss out on this rite of passage. Then, three of my roommates had their party together and my friend Brayli asked if I wanted to do the same. Her birthday is at the end of April, so it was really her birthday party and my 20-and-11-months party. Regardless, everyone treated me like my birthday was exactly when we were celebrating. We planned for weeks in advance to pick the right day, theme and outfits. Day of, Brayli and I prepared and decorated until we had to get ready. Finally, 6 o'clock came and it was shotbook time.
Our friends Morgan and Averi decorated our shotbooks. We sat in front of our banner and they revealed our matching pink scrapbooks with lace, pearls, baby pictures, the whole production (I wasn't kidding). Reading through my shotbook with all of my friends was the highlight of my junior year. I wasn't kidding when I said this was a production. All of my people were in one place! Each friend came to sit with me and I individually thanked them for their page and making the day so special. During other people's pages, they all talked, snacked and laughed together. My hometown friends made me pages to read on my own, and my long distance boyfriend FaceTimed me to look at his page together. In all of my time in college this was the day I felt the most seen, loved and grateful for the life I have in Norman.
At the end of the party, Brayli and I stood at the table with our personalized baby picture stickers, cakes and flowers. One cake was pink with real lemons on top and the other was yellow with pink piping that said "Happy Birthday." (We definitely meant to get two cakes and it wasn't a miscommunication… anyway.) The stickers had our baby pictures on them for our friends to wear and show off our adorable faces. Honestly, anyone that saw them had to be thinking I can't believe those little girls are 21 now. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. While everyone was singing happy birthday I was still high on gratitude. I was standing next to one of my best friends, staring at everyone we know, who was smiling at us. We blew out the candles and the gratitude just kept growing. Everyone talked, laughed and danced the rest of the night.
Earlier this year, I thought to myself, is it really that big of a deal to not have a 21st birthday party? I felt silly wanting these seemingly small things. It was not silly. This party, with all of my friends involved (even people thousands of miles away) showed me how much I'm loved and how much I have to love. These are not just college experiences. They are moments I will cherish long after I leave Norman.
xo, Rach