Matthew Who Will Be Thirty-Two in Twenty-Four Hours

I will be thirty-two years old in exactly 24 hours from the start of this piece. I was born at 9:51PM EDT, Friday, October 27, 1978. And if I had my way about it, I wouldn't stop crowing about it.

I never wanted to be the kind of person who gets down on himself when his birthday comes up. In other words, I couldn't be someone who passes his birthday off as just another day, marking just another number. I've known, and lived, with people like that and they just make me sad.

Your birthday is the ultimate celebration of YOU. You only get one birthday per year, per lifetime. So you know what? Live it up! Smile, even when everybody is frowning and seething. Shake a stranger's hand. Eat lots of birthday cake. Blow the noisemaker as hard as you can; who cares if the cops show up. Celebrate YOU. Spread the celebration across days if you can help it. You got the other 364 days of the year to be miserable and lonely and sad. Your birthday's the day to have wings on your heels, and when your birthday comes, you gotta feel like you're flying.

October 27 is my Day. Just as it is for everyone else who day it is. Just as, say, June 2 is someone else's Day. It's your day to glow and crow and exult in the fact that you made it. You get to run another lap with the rest of us.

But save a piece of cake for me, would you please?