I Throw Myself a Birthday Party Every Year, and I Have No Regrets About It

I have a daily routine I rarely like to stray from, so I’m very much a type A person. I have everything organized in a planner for the entire month, and my life runs on structure and control. I think this is partly because I’m an only child and my dad was in the military, so structure has always been a big part of my life. It’s because of this same structure that I throw myself a birthday party every single year (minus 2020, of course), and I don’t regret at thing. I prioritise and celebrate myself all day long, because isn’t that the way it should be? I don’t care how old you are, birthday parties should never be something you have to grow out of.

There are some major perks to throwing a birthday party for yourself, the first being you don’t have to wait for everyone to get to your house or to dinner to start celebrating. When my birthday rolls around every year, I tend to start the day with a huge smile on my face knowing how incredibly blessed I am to be alive for another birthday. Then the celebration begins with my favourite breakfast, Bobby Flay’s orange ricotta pancakes (if you haven’t tried these you need to ASAP).

Eventually, it’s time for the party with my friends to start, and typically I grab a few of them to head out for a fun activity and dinner beforehand. Because I throw myself a party instead of letting someone else throw it for me, I always get to do exactly what I want. If you only want two friends with you that you’ve known forever, do that. If you want everyone you know to be there, that’s okay too. I usually always choose a smaller group just because it’s easier to coordinate the event and you don’t have to cater to so many people.

As for the activity, the world is my oyster. I try to pick something unique that lines up with my interests and something I think the other people in my group will also enjoy, especially since the activity usually isn’t free. Some of my past birthdays have including pottery painting, seeing a baseball game, and having a movie night. This year I’m thinking an interactive cooking class might be fun!

Dinner is where most people tend to get the most ambitious and pick somewhere fancy, but I always pick the same spot and my friends know it before I even send them the calendar invite: Chewy’s. I could live off of Tex-Mex and Mexican food, and Chewy’s always hits the spot, especially when everything is drowned in their creamy jalapeño dip. Like I said, it’s your birthday so do what you want!

Even though the day isn’t filled with a ton of surprises because I throw my own birthday party, it’s always exactly what I want it to be and spent with the people I want to spend it with. Maybe this is the year you start throwing your own birthday party, and I promise you won’t regret it. Buy the cute outfit, order the massive cake, and celebrate another lap around the sun, because if the beautiful fact of simply being alive isn’t worth celebrating, I don’t know what is!