Celebrating My 21st Birthday in Quarantine

I signed up to write this blog post a few weeks ago with hopes that I’d have to change it to a different topic because we’d be let out of quarantine before April 12th. Unfortunately, as we all know too well, that was not the case, so here I am, about to tell you about my experience celebrating my birthday in quarantine.

A month ago, I thought my birthday was going to be terrible because it fell on both Passover (which I celebrate) and Easter (which I don’t celebrate, but many of my friends do). I knew that I’d be home with my parents for the holiday, that I wouldn’t be able to eat any good food (for those who don’t know – Passover has some strict food restrictions, including but not limited to literally all wheat products), and that most of my friends would be busy with their own holiday observances and probably wouldn’t be able to spend my birthday with me. The one thing I was looking forward to about my birthday was going to see the touring production of Dear Evan Hansen in Philadelphia with my family.

And then, of course, all of that changed, as did my perspective on the definition of terrible.

By the time my birthday actually arrived, we had been in quarantine for a month, and I could barely even leave the house, let alone spend the day with my friends or go see a musical. I know that the stay at home orders are necessary to save people’s lives and to cope with the coronavirus and I take it very seriously, but that doesn’t change the fact that being stuck inside on my birthday was less than awesome.

To my pleasant surprise, it actually wasn’t as terrible a birthday as I expected! My mom made Passover-friendly pancakes, which is one of the few Passover foods that is actually good, and I watched a musical and a Disney movie with my family. At the end of the day, my mom surprised me with a Zoom call she organized and invited a bunch of my friends to, and it was really great to at least see my friends even if I couldn’t hang out with them in person.

If you had a birthday or have an upcoming birthday in quarantine, I sympathize with you, and even though it won’t be anything like what you hoped, I hope that you will make the best of it and be pleasantly surprised by how lovely your birthday can be, even in quarantine. And, of course, you all (and I) get a makeup birthday when this is over.

I hope you all are staying safe and healthy : )