I have so many of these because I hoard my favorite moments like a dragon. But I've limited myself to one.
This is a disposable camera photo of the first birthday party / dinner party I threw myself in college. My roommate, two of my friends, and my cousin all came early to help me set up and finish cooking things. Whirling around getting dressed and setting up with that small group was so fun. And of course the party itself was a delight although I think my social battery died a little too quick after spending most the day prepping. But even then it was still nice to be surrounded by people who wanted to come to my birthday party and all the food me and my friends made. I was very proud of it.
I don't usually do anything big for my birthday because I like spending it just doing little fun things for myself I've been meaning to do like trying a new place or buying a limited edition ice cream flavor or something. And things like this can be a lot of time and energy. But I like getting friends together and so I went for it that year.
I also had to wait so long for these photos to come back because I had to use up the film roll first. And then CVS said they could only give us the photos on CD and I didn't want to hunt down a CD reader on campus so I mailed it out to a company that emailed me the photos. So by the time I had the rolls developed it was already kind of a nice throwback with photos from that night that I had never seen before.
Apr 7, 2025
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as a practitioner of film photography i heavily relate to rediscovering photos years after initially taking them and the wistful joy that comes from it, i am however shocked to hear cvs no longer prints photos but sets them to a disc? this is akin to walmart getting rid of the fishtanks and i cant stand for it
Apr 7, 2025
@OKWETUU_FISH that's so cool! oh they do print them! I just wanted a digital copy as well
Apr 7, 2025
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14âHeld my party in a private underground bar with speakeasy vibes, because it was underneath the opera house where I did community theater and it was where weâd had our cast parties. My mom knew the guy who owns basically the whole block and he was surprisingly okay with letting us use it for a teenagerâs birthday lol. My âHappy Birthdayâ banner still hangs from the ceiling, last I checked!
15âtwo of my friends surprised me at my bedroom window at midnight, and in the afternoon we drove out to a camping spot along the river. There, we lit a campfire and wrote stuff on slips of paper that we wanted to burn to get it out of our lives. Before that, we ate the cake that my friend had made me, but in our infinite wisdom we forgot forks or plates, so we ate it with our hands like cavemen lmao
19âMy first summer living away from home, so I was nervous that I wouldnât have anyone to hang out with since my friends had moved back home after our freshman year, leaving me alone in our college town. I enjoyed my speech and debate teammates but I didnât feel that close to them outside of the activity. That changed after they invited me to the farmerâs market with them and then back to the house they were renting. They made me a banh mi inspired pizza (flatbread with the spicy mayo as the âpizza sauceâ and the tofu and pickled veggies as toppings) that is still unrivaled in my culinary experiences. We played several board games and had a lot of funâI felt really loved by these people who didnât really have to do this for me! One of them had graduated that spring and passed the team presidency onto me, and I just adored her. I felt so happy to be hanging out with her on my birthday. We dated a couple years later after she and her high school sweetheart split, but I ended up getting my heart broken. That makes this memory a little bittersweet, looking back on a now ruined friendship. But it is memorable anyway so I had to put it even though it isnât 100% happy lol
May 27, 2025
maybe itâs the joy on my face or maybe itâs the fact that i know exactly what happened for this picture to occur, but, man, i love it.
nothing like being 21, drunk, and sweaty staring at all of your friends from your apartmentâs alley and getting a half-eaten slice of homemade cake shoved in your hands. i had called my friend who left the party bc he got too high and was scared of all the people hahaha. he never did end up coming back.
this is still a night iâm very grateful for and iâm happy to have this moment captured.
thank you, stringbean501
Apr 9, 2024
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my birthday often falls the week of thanksgiving, so i usually just take the day off as a "extending the long weekend" if i don't already get it off. since i moved to the west coast ~3 years ago and most of my friends and family are back in new york, every year on my birthday in the morning i make sure to:
1. respond to every single birthday text i got, and if possible hop on a quick call with as many people as i can. basically just a gratitude practice of "hey as i've gotten older i've not only developed meaningful relationships, i've also held onto a lot of meaningful relationships."
2. eat breakfast out; i think my birthday breakfast for the last two years has been Oddfellows CafĂŠ + Bar (oddfellowscafe.com), but taking the time to have an extra special solo (or with my partner) breakfast keeps the scaries at bay for at least a couple hours
3. going shopping for a birthday gift for myself in person so i have something to open when i get home.
after that it's pretty much just about having a couple extra things to do during my day like trying a new restaurant / going to a favorite for lunch, running a "fun" errand like dropping off film to get scanned, and then meeting local friends for either dinner out and / or cake and games back at my apartment, etc.
having something where i can look back and feel like i did something is all i'm looking for; i think through my late teens / early twenties i put a lot of emphasis on wanting my my birthday to feel "special" which meant it was doomed to not be "special" enough. since pivoting to having fun my birthday has felt a lot more special since it's just different from the monotony of a normal day, and there wasn't any extra pressure on it
Apr 1, 2024
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