We cannot stop it. We cannot halt it.
Just like death, we cannot stop birthdays from coming every year. Birthdays are already part of our lives. It is the time when we celebrate the day we were born to this world. We gather our families, friends, acquaintances, and everyone close to us on this very special day. We stash large bucks out of our pockets so we can make our birthdays with the people special to our lives. However, birthdays are not forced holidays. We are not forced to celebrate it each year. We are not obliged to take out the last single cent from our pockets just to make our ‘special friends’ happy.
Unfortunately, based on my own observations, I really feel bad for people who have got the nerve to ask you to celebrate your birthday for them. Are we really now living in modern times, that we also have to ask other people to feed us on their own respective birthdays? That’s one hell absurd. I mean, celebrating your birthday is okay. There is no problem on that. In fact, if you have the money, you can celebrate your birthday the way you wanted it to be. If and only if, you have the money, but if you don’t have money, you don’t need to sacrifice your own budget just to please the alligators around you. Oh my goodness! Why do you still exist, inconsiderate people?!
Another thing I consistently observed is that, why is it that if you are only a small person in your society, you need to fund your own birthday bash? On the other hand, if someone big in your society is going to celebrate his or her birthday, why do you also need to stash out some money to fund a birthday party for that particular person? The answer is the word: CONVIVIALITY. They say it is for the sake of CONVIVIALITY or in Filipino, PAKIKISAMA.
Do we really need to resort to this way of maintaining good relationship? Again, it’s absurd! Don’t you know that it’s also a way of bribery? Yeah, I mean it. It’s bribery. Think of this, how do politicians maintain good relationship with their co-politicians? How do business tycoons maintain harmonious relationship with their investors? How do entertainment personalities maintain good images in newspapers and on television? All of these people invite their so-called ‘friends’ on their birthday parties. They are always invited. Can’t think of the connection? Figure out this situation. If a new-arising entertainer forgets to invite one of the most important entertainment writers, do you know what will happen next? The next day you will find demoralizing news about this new-arising entertainer, and everything will be simply pinpointed to the poor entertainer’s negligence.
In companies or industries like call center, if you forgot to invite your team leaders on your birthday celebration, be prepared on what will happen the next day. It’s either you get memo for ‘really’ small job mistakes, or you get demoted from your position. That’s the reality! What I am trying to point out here is, if you will resist going with the usual things in your society, you will never see yourself promoted. To make it more dramatic, you will never see the sunrise anymore.
If you want to gain more friends in the society you belong to, do not resort to the politician’s way of gaining friends. I wonder how many people out there are crying for advocacies against briberies and corruption when they themselves are making briberies on their own little ways. Learn how to respect what is there to be respected. Learn how to respect the real and written rules. Learn to obey them. If you are someone who gladly obeys rules, other people will learn to love your ways and your personality.
Learn how to respect people with or without authority in the office you belong to, that way people will do likewise.
DISCLAIMER: Bato bato sa langit, tamaan huwag magalit. I didn’t intend to describe anyone here in this article. Hence, do not make an issue out of this if you happen to read this one. I mean, you like to know more about me, right? Then, here’s what you got. Blah-blah-blah! :P
