Your birthday is important. It only happens once a year. Rare enough that it isn't selfish to celebrate another year you've been alive and frequent enough that you should celebrate every single year. My birthday is coming up and I am going to celebrate it to the capacity of a religious holiday. Here's why.

My philosophy is we live every day of the year trying to do our very best and trying to be kind to people. I have the goal of making other people smile every single day. I spend each day trying to be the light in someone else's life. It is my choice to spend my time in this way. A lot of us spend most of our time loving and doing things for others and sometimes we forget about ourselves. It's important to love and do things for ourselves as well. After all, each and every one of us deserves to be celebrated for who we are and what we have accomplished year after year. Going above and beyond for our friends and family is such a beautiful thing, but once every 365 days, it's our turn.

You don't have to think of it as celebrating your age, either, if that's what you're afraid of. Most people don't see the relevance in celebrating age after 21, anyway. It is a day where others have the chance to make you happy. Friends come together to enjoy your presence and tell stories about you. It is a day where pretty much everything can rightfully be about you. This may or may not be a good thing.

Your friends and family have the chance to do something special for you, and that's a beautiful thing. It's a day dedicated to surprises, gifts, and free passes. You can do whatever you want as an exclamation of commemoration. You can go crazy and throw an all-day party for yourself or you can lay in bed and watch your favorite TV show as your significant other makes you food all day. However you choose to spend your day is socially acceptable because it's literally your day. The "it's my birthday!" excuse is valid for a full 24-hours and I fully recommend abusing that power. If anyone objects, let them know they can have the same power when it's their day. But not on yours.

Not to mention all of the freebies you can get from restaurants and stores on your birthday!

I see so many people who would go to the ends of the earth to make others happy, but wouldn't do the same for themselves. Why is that? I believe celebrating yourself is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves and it shows our personal growth. It's hard to wholly and completely love yourself, and sometimes we're scared of looking conceited or too self-involved. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging what you've done the past year not only for others but also for the betterment of you. Each and every one of us is deserving of love and happiness no matter who we are. It's not vain to want to feel special for one day out of the year. It just means we love who we are. If nothing else, that alone is reason enough to celebrate.