Caoimhina Sloan

My name is Caoimhina Sloan, and although my name alone is enough of a story in and of itself, I’m choosing to write about my birthday. A bit of an odd choice you may think, but I was born on December 31st, New Year’s Eve. People always assumed that it was annoying to share my birthday with a holiday, saying how it took away from my special day, but my parents made the holiday the best part of my birthday. Every year for as long as I can remember, I would get to celebrate my birthday until the last minute. When I was young, my parents would come in and wake me up for the countdown, and then my dad would carry me outside on his shoulders to go watch the fireworks with the rest of the family. We would always begin the new year with a toast, enough cocktail sausages to feed an army (an Irish staple), and any leftover birthday cake which I always had the honor of cutting. This tradition has continued over the last nineteen years despite oceans separating my immediate family from our extended family. Not many people have the ability to say their birthday is their favorite holiday and be able to back it up with a real holiday. Why would someone not want to grow up believing all the fuss for New Years is all for you? And I know not many people can say they watch fireworks shoot off and Chinese lanterns floating through the sky every year on their birthday.