Birthdays

In law school, the method of teaching was graded recitation everyday, the “Socratic method” they called it. The professor would prescribe the required reading material for the day, and the student should be prepared to recite on those readings each day. There were only two instances when you could escape the perils of graded recitation, the first being, if there was an event that day like the last day before Christmas break, or Valentine’s Day or the professor’s birthday, and the class would prepare a party complete with food and program. And second is if it were your birthday that day. You (or your classmates) could proudly declare that it was your birthday and the professor would take it lightly on you during recitation, or even give you a free pass.

There was one particular (brutal) professor though who was the exception to the exception. When he called a classmate for recitation during her birthday, he started giving a bit of trivia on birthdays. I’m not sure if he was just pulling our legs or not, but he said that the ancient Romans, who were good astronomers, believed that that alignment of stars during one’s birthday was such that the birthday celebrant was particularly unlucky during that day. As the day of birth approaches each year, the stars align in an inconvenient manner for the celebrant and that lack of luck reaches its peak during the day itself where untoward incidents are more likely to happen. Having said that, he continued with the graded recitation of my classmate, and said that he was just reinforcing such belief of the Romans.

I seem to be inclined to believe in my professor regarding birthdays. I was never really one to be excited about my own birthday even when I was a kid. I’m not really sure why, but I regarded my birthday just like any other day of the year. It just so happens that every year, our family gathers for lunch or dinner on that particular day. I’m not especially sad as my birthday approaches, but I just don’t get the extraordinariness of it. Plus, I somehow tend to be “out of it” as my birthday approaches. I am not able to function properly with work or school; I tend to be disorganized and forgetful; and I sometimes just get a bit irritated easily.

Maybe this would be a good subject to research on, but for the moment, as my birthday approaches, allow me to be a bit more negative than usual. I will be back to regular programming when the day passes.