Every year, I have specific things I do around my birthday. Some happened once and then evolved into my personal traditions.

I take stock in my life. Yeah that’s a heavy one.

This includes thinking of friends and family and evaluating who makes my life better by being in it. I reach out to anyone I lost touch with or haven’t heard from in a while and genuinely want in my life.

The other biggie is looking through old photo albums to remember who I’ve been over the years. That parts of me I lost and miss and the parts that grew in their place. I try to figure out how much of the current me I like and how much of the old me I’d like to bring back. Not that it’s always possible to do so. But it’s good to keep a ledger.

This photo album search also resurrects some wonderful and some sorrow-filling memories. It’s a cathartic thing. In the end, I usually am happy with who I am and who I’ve been and I learn to appreciate myself more.

And lastly, and easiest, I consider what goals I had for that year. Did I meet them? Did I do what I set out to do with that year of my life?

And those are my little birthday traditions.

What do you do to mark another year passing?

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