From car parades for birthday celebrations, weddings being cancelled, and the only people you are celebrating things with are the people you live with… Safe to say anything during Quarantine 2020 because of COVID-19 will never be forgotten.
I personally can say having a birthday in May this year was not how I expected to celebrate at all- it also being my 21st!!! I was supposed to be going out with my group of friends to a bar or club, getting unreasonably drunk and not remembering how I got home that night, right? That is the stereotype that goes on for everyone’s 21st birthday?! Nope, not mine this year or my friend groups, since majority of us were turning 21 during the Quarantine. Great!
I was having major FOMO- fear of missing out (just in case anyone reading this isn’t a millennial) ;). I’ve seen people a year or two older than me having these huge parties and going out for their 21st and I knew I wouldn’t be getting that this year and you only turn 21 once (sorry to break the news mom, you can’t change 51 to 21). Everyone always looks forward to this huge milestone- where we can get rid of the fake of ID’s and never have to ask anyone to buy us alcohol again… it’s a big moment people. Safe to say I was being a drama queen because this year had to be the best birthday yet and I truly don’t think it could be topped. But, that doesn’t mean we can try having another pandemic next year, I’ll do a hard pass for everyone on that.
The morning of my birthday I woke up to my mom saying to come outside. My friends decorated my car, filled it COMPLETELY with balloons inside and my whole front yard and house was decorated. And of course, I was iced at 9am… true friends. Friends didn’t stay long because of everything going on obviously but I knew I would see them later during my friends car parade since we shared the same birthday- we did the same thing for her the night before with her car and lawn. I then got my favorite chocolate chip pancakes and mimosas and had my boyfriend show up with gifts. He got me bottles of wine, flowers, my favorite snacks, lottery tickets, a few other things, and of course Tim Hortons. I knew I wanted to take pictures all dressed up with balloons and a confetti blaster I had and the only other thing I knew was planned was dinner with just my immediate family. So I showered, got ready, had my boyfriend take pictures with our camera and then all of a sudden I realized I was home alone. My mom, sister and boyfriend had all very sneakily left the house without me noticing until they were all gone. I was too focused looking at the pictures on the camera, duh. About 10 minutes later my sister and mom came back and said, “Why don’t you come outside for a second”, in a tone of them trying to be completely cool and natural but totally bombing that. Then the beeping started and about 20 cars driving by filled with my closest family and friends all there showing me so much love. They did one lap around and came back a second time and parked and dropped me off gifts and I did get to talk to everyone- socially distracted don’t you worry Cuomo. Now my house looks like I could run a liquor store with how much alcohol I got. I think I am stocked until my 22nd birthday, but I am not complaining at all. During dinner my sister sent me a 5-minute video of my friends and family sending in their own clips wishing me a happy birthday, and that has to be the cutest video I have ever seen. I thought that was it of surprises until after dinner and my friends car parade, my boyfriend said he wanted to go for a drive. I didn’t think of anything of it since we would do it all the time. We ended up driving on my one friends street and I saw her outside. I obviously rolled the window down and said hi and she said, “Oh my gosh!!! Why don’t you park and come in for a little bit we can hangout Christina (our other friend) is here too!!!”. So of course, I made him stop and I told him we could go for a drive after. Christina was the one who also had the same day birthday as me. We walked in her backyard together to my whole friend group screaming “SURPRISE”. The whole backyard was decorated, there was snacks, shots, a birthday cake with a drunk Christina and I on it. Our friends went completely above and beyond for us. It was the best surprise ever.m
It wasn’t a night at the club, but I can mark off my bucket list that I don’t remember how I got home on the night of my 21st birthday. But it was my boyfriend who stayed sober to take care of me for the night- what a keeper. He also got me drunk Mighty Taco, which is more brownie points.
The day was filled with people who mean so much to me, going the extra mile to make me feel special and that whole day would not of went like that if it wasn’t for COVID. People had to get creative and think out of the box for anyone who had birthdays or something special during Quarantine. A lot of the things people have come up with I know will stick around and become new traditions for celebrations which I love so much.
So to make a long story still long, my 21st birthday was one of the best days of my life in such a weird timing of the world and I’m sure a lot of you can relate in some way.
-Nicole
