Bittersweet Birthday

Ciera Isner

This piece was written as an in class journal. We were asked to tell about an incident from childhood that we remembered, and write it through our perspective as a child.

Bittersweet Birthday

It was late September, the 28th to be exact, and school had started again. I had gotten the hang of who my teachers were and what my classes would be like and thing were finally starting to look up. Most importantly, it was finally my birthday! I had the last birthday in my class, so it was exciting that I was finally turning 12!

As any sixth grader would be, I was on top of the world. Soon I would get presents, and my family would go out to eat (wherever I chose of course) and the whole day would be all about me. Al of my friends told me happy birthday, we had a little party in one of my classes, and I brought in home-made rice krispy treats. The only thing missing was my daddy, who was working out of town in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.

I had made him an out of sight, out of mind, kind of thing. I didn’t let it get to me that he wasn’t home for my first day of sixth grade, or that he missed my mom’s birthday, and now mine. I just had fun with my mom during the time we had, and was excited when he came home.

This method worked good, until the secretary brought me something at lunch that day. All the way from his job site, my daddy had remembered me! He had taken time out of his busy day to call the flower shop and order me a candy bouquet. When the secretary dropped it off, I cried, right there in the cafeteria. I missed him a lot, and it made me really happy that he had been so thoughtful.

For a minute, my birthday was bigger than just me and my presents with pretty wrapping paper and big bows. Then everyone noticed I was crying and as they began asking what was wrong, it became all about me again.