You say it’s your birthday?
Here in the Netherlands, you do say it’s your birthday. It is expected. You don’t wait around to see if anyone remembers. In this egalitarian society, everyone gets their day and they bring their own cakes into the office and throw parties for themselves EVERY YEAR, so there is no chance anyone is forgotten. The Dutch never outgrow birthday parties, skip the celebration or space it out to only celebrating the landmark big 0s 30,40,50…as is the custom in the US.
Another interesting thing to note is that a birthday party invitation trumps all other obligations. There is almost no way out! How much fun it must be to throw a surprise party for a Dutch person! It would always be easy and they would always be shocked, because of course they would have also already planned their own party.
Today is in fact my birthday. Usually not hung up on age, I’ll admit to not being thrilled this year. As of today, it is no longer mathematically possible to divide the decade and remain in the mid-range of my thirties. This realization made me feel old, until an incident last week in an undergraduate Corporate Communications Course that I was teaching put it all back into perspective. Continue reading »
Filed under Just for fun | Comment (1)Upstaged
Yesterday’s event at The Hague City Hall to celebrate the opening of an Expatriate Archive Center was well attended. Not surprisng as the Archive Center is a Shell initiative and Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell was speaking. Another big draw on the program was newly appointed Mayor of The Hague, Jozias van Aartsen, former Minister of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs. His term as mayor is only days old, so public interest in him is high, based on the number of photagraphers present.
The audience was receptive to both of these high profile speakers, but when a nervous, slim, casually dressed seventeen year old Anika Smit took the stage, the audience and the event were entirely hers. She spoke a truth you don’t hear from politicians or CEOs.
She stood with her knee trembling, telling about the book Taxi she wrote at thirteen. Anika has moved 13 times and lived in 18 different houses around the world. She shared the heartbreak of goodbyes and the difficulty of adjusting to life in China, where she wrote the book. It begins in a taxi on the way to dancing class and ends in Inner Mongolia, where she truly came to understand the good fortune of her lot in life and the deep sense of responsibility that goes along with it. She urged us to make the distinction between real problems and uncomfortable situations. Her wisdom, poise and grace left me feeling hopeful for the future.
Filed under Inspiring | Comment (1)
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