Milestones and birthdays. Without which a date will just be another day, another mundane day which we fill with our work, our daily routine. The question then we always ask ourselves is how are we going to celebrate, or to commemorate it, and finally end up exposing ourselves to much work and worries.

Yesterday's celebration told me a few things. 1. my fears/anxieties as indicated in the previous post were almost quite unfounded. 2. i have a lot to be thankful for 3. it reminded me why i wanted this in the first place.

having planned stuff for people for the longest time - from house meetings to class outings to ord functions, i have a tendency to constantly put the target audience ahead of anyone else. i want them to walk away with the best memories, to have all the fun they can have. and in that respect i hope that even if this celebration is for me, about me, they all walk away having had a great time, whether it is the food or being able to catch up with many friends. i still dont know how many people come out of political correctness and how many people came for me. but you know what? it doesnt matter anymore, because those who mattered i know, came for me in any case. (:

and the way the whole thing turned out, it far exceeded what i had expected it to be. it reminded me why i wanted this in the first place - to celebrate my birthday amidst incessant chatter, with my family and my friends. and while i didnt get to really sit down and talk to lots of people, i am truly glad that they all came down (dressed up!), interacted with one another and enjoyed the buffet spread. I especially liked how zul tied everything together before the cake-cutting and all - never mind it was last minute, and started off as a remark which he readily acted upon in his usual settle everything in 10 minutes style. it was great, and even if not to you, was awfully heartwarming and touching at times for me.

it was tiring though, trying to get people to reply, deciding on the guest-list, finding a place, ensuring that whatever is negotiated is committed to us, responding to queries, but there's so much to be thankful for. while having a party wasnt because i wanted to collect presents, it is always nice, i admit, to have presents, and thank you so much for the array of presents! how to tell when it's 21 years you are celebrating and that 21 is old? the grown up nature of the presents! haha. from the fashionable to the practical, i loved them all - thank you so much, it is clear that you all put much thought into them and i hope you guys didnt have to spend so much (although from the looks of it it was quite a sum). more that i have to be thankful for is your presence, which really made me happy, and highlighted to me my anxieties really were unfounded, as nash predicted in his card.

thank you too to zul for coordinating the whole cakecutting thing, to the many photographers who ensure that i walk away with many ways to remember that fantastic night - jingsong, james, eugene, my sister, navjote, berwin (and many others not in my line of vision or i forgot), and to those who gave heartwarming off-the-cuff speeches - edwin, navjote, ccc and zul and to those who took the special effort to dressed according to the theme! and of course, like i said, to my parents for everything.

i have so much to say at this point of time, after last night's late night conversation about aware, singapore politics and global affairs, but this post shall be about my birthday and you, and we shall leave those for another time. it was an awesome birthday, i am sorry for the guys who felt that there was an absolute lack of 'female presence', but they're mostly overseas so oh well.

it is my best birthday celebration ever, mainly because it is the first time i had so many friends from various groups come together and join me in this. (although this kind of things cannot be done too often or is seriously over indulgent and extravagant) thank you to all who turned up and most of all because i dont often find an opportunity to say things like that - thank you a whole lot for the past few years, whenever you first got to know me, and heres hoping that we will all make that special effort to meet up, to always be there for one another in the next many many years.
whatever it is, i hope if you went you had fun

junyi! posted at 9:04 pm.