My parents threw me a birthday party last December 27. I didn’t even plan to celebrate but they took care of everything for me. I am beyond grateful. However, it wasn’t all smiles.
Prior to this, some of my friends kept on asking about what we’re going to do for my birthday. They literally had a set of choices. Pizza, coffee, samgyupsal, whatever. I told them to just come over to my house. And they all said yes.
If I can remember correctly, I had invited at least 8 people from different friend groups to come. I rarely do this especially now with the pandemic. This meant a lot for me.
Since they don’t come from the same circles, I had to think ahead about how to entertain everyone and make sure nobody’s left out. I had even asked my mom to have certain dishes since some don’t eat most of the food we’ll serve. I was also about to ask my dad to set up chairs just for us so they wouldn’t get uncomfortable knowing that my relatives will also be there.
On my birthday, I simply couldn’t believe that nobody of my “friends” came. Well there were two. But they don’t count since they’re a staple in my life for 2, 3 years so I know they would be present. The rest of them canceled one by one that I had to fake my happiness that day. I literally pretended that I was fine. But I wasn’t.
My entire extended family was there. But those who I truly prepared for weren’t. Most of them didn’t even talk to me about them not coming anymore. I only heard about it from someone else. All this happened on the day of the party. So the extra food I had prepared, the chairs I had planned to set up, everything went to waste. It would have been more understandable and less painful if I was made aware at least a day before the occasion. But that wasn’t the case.
This left me heart broken that I don’t ever want to invite anyone ever again to come over for my birthday. I will never believe people again when they say they’re excited to celebrate with me. I will never trust anyone again with things like this.
I have watched videos on the internet about people celebrating alone because nobody responded to their invites. I just can’t believe that I experienced the same thing. I wasn’t alone. But I was definitely hopeful. Maybe I invited the wrong people? Maybe I’m overreacting? I don’t know. But how would you feel when nobody came on your special day?