Happy Birthday To Me And My Bold Head

Firstly its my birthday today, hooray. Its my birthday and look what I’ve done to myself below.

BEFORE

AFTER

Before you jump to conclusions, no, I’m not having a quarter life crisis as my friend Clayford suggested. Also, it wasn’t a birthday prank gone wrong. I got my head shaved for the Leukemia Foundation Shave For A Cure fundraising. I got people to sponsor me to shave my head. All the money went to leukemia research.

I’ve had very short hair cuts before but never a complete shave. I must say, you can definitely feel the wind on your head. Also, people love to rub your head for some reason. I think it’s similar to people rubbing a pregnant woman’s tummy. It must be some strange remnant of our genes that can be traced back to the cave man days, who knows.

Back to the topic of my birthday, I haven’t celebrated my birthday (except my 21st) since I was 10 years old. Asians don’t really do the whole party thing, unless they choose to follow Western traditions. Even then, its usually only when you are young and want to have parties because the other kids at school are.

For young Asians, on your birthday you will get a bit of money that they can buy anything with and told to respect your parents and study hard at school. Nowadays, I may go out with my family to eat dinner and some years may get a present. I never say no to presents, so if anyone wants to give me a present, I’ll gladly accept.

I think now birthdays are just another reminder that I’m getting older. But the last few birthdays have also been a time reflect on my life and things that I have learnt. It’s a good time to think about all the things that you do have and be grateful for that rather than what you don’t have. I think I also have to start thinking more about my future and what I want to do professionally. I’ve just been sailing through work so far and haven’t thought too carefully about what path I want to take in my career. It seems like everyone around me has gone back to study at school again, so I may need to think about doing that too to keep improving myself. I also have to think about my future financially, start investigating investment options or possible business ventures. As with everyone else, I also want to retire when I’m forty and live the rest of my life in comfort without having to work. Here’s to dreaming anyway.

Here is an original birthday lyric written by me that you may use to sing to yourself when its your birthday too.

Happy birthday to me,
I am full of glee,
I hope I stay that way,
Until one hundred and three.