On "Happy Birthday!"s

Yeah, the 30 poems in 30 days wasn't happening. It was nice while it lasted but I shifted my creative attention towards recording and writing music over the last couple weeks. Big progress on the EP, I just need to get one more track down before I can organize this once and for all.

Anyways, that's not why I'm here tonight.

It's two days until my eighteenth birthday, and it's looking like a snow day on my birthday. This means that instead of going to school and getting spoken-word well-wishes, my "happy birthday"s will be restricted to my parents, relatives, and... well, this:

And so on to infinity.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Facebook deluge of happy birthday posts. Let's break it down as such:

Love:
- The influx of notifications is a nice confidence booster.
- You can reconnect with people that you may have forgotten about.
- It's a nice token of appreciation.

Hate:
- "Who are you people?"
- Feeling the need to write uninspired "Thank you!"s underneath each and every post.
- For many, it's just an exercise in Internet courtesy.

Which irks me. If you're going to send someone well-wishes, make sure that it's wholehearted, not just a flagrant obligation.

And protip: if you care about the person enough, say something a little extra than just "Happy birthday!" Switch it up: put it in another language or anagram it, whatever comes to mind. Make it exciting! Sure, it's just a simple gesture, but it can be expanded into something that's highly entertaining.

/rant

~-~