Happy Belated Birthday

I can still remember the time when I was young, in primary school, I always couldn't fall asleep on my birthday's eve because of the excitement for the following day.
The years after wasn't too bad, I had always thought of November as a special month for me.

This year, however, a sign of aging dawned on me.
I felt totally indifferent as the 'day' approached.
No longer looking forward to birthday.
The 'day' came as a relief to me, as I took some time off to be alone.
I guess it's a quirk of mine, sometimes yearning to break away from human contact.
Nowadays, social networking websites and mobile network are so pervasive, it makes people-to-people contact much easier and frequent, though the level of depth of such communication remains debatable.
Work, family, friends, acquaintanaces...
It just felt right to take a small break from all these.
After all, the day belongs to me and it's up to me how to spend it.

Recently, however (another sign of aging, perhaps), I have been thinking about how thankful I am to the people around me.

Colleagues- people I see everyday, they have been very tolerant of my immature self, my puny brain and my forgetfulness.
Friends- people who understand my seemingly aloofness, my weakness with spoken words, and weirdness.
Family- people who accepts my true self, my easily irritable self, and patiently listens to all the stories I have to tell.

However, nothing stays the same forever.
When bad times come, I know I have all these people to count on for support.
When the ugly side of people starts to show, at least I am still reminded of their kindness.