Every year, for as long as I can remember, my parents and I have always gone out to dinner on the evening of my birthday to celebrate. When I was younger, my grandparents would also join us, though in recent years, the trek upstate has become too rough for my grandmother to travel alone. We first began this tradition in style at The Cheesecake Factory. It was magical, and the photos we captured there over the years speak to my excitement and enjoyment for themselves. As I grew older, though, we eventually made the upgrade to someplace new; someplace where the tradition went from something that I was just looking forward to as part of my birthday to the thing that I counted down the days specifically for; Maggiano's Little Italy, an upscale Italian restaurant with a few locations across parts of the United States. There are probably nicer places that I could ring in my new year, but I really don't care. There is nothing I look forward to more in the calendar year than my annual birthday escapade out to Maggiano's; stepping out of the car into the freezing winter's night, and trampling through the fresh layer of snow up to the grand front doors, entering into the vast, elegant ballroom tastefully decorated with beautiful Christmas trees, larger than life wreaths hung on the walls, and a charming abundance of garland strung about for a delicious winter's meal; the soft tune of traditional Christmas classics playing throughout. As if by magic, the evening I look forward to most never changes; no matter the ongoing events in my life, big or small, and no matter the age I turn, the birthday evening remains an ever-replaying constant frozen in time once per year that I cherish more than anything else. My annual birthday dinner at Maggiano's has gently accompanied me through thick and thin in my life, there as a constant reminder of the purest joy and as something to always look forward to, no matter what else is going on in the world.
Of course, there is more to the day than the dinner. The day of my birthday is one of unparalleled rest and relaxation, without responsibilities or the burdens of life; should it fall on a school day, the day is always taken off. The day marks the definitive beginning of the holiday season, the first round of many Christmas presents to come, and, more than anything, the turning over of a new year, one chock-full of many new adventures ahead. I can only imagine that sentiment will echo louder this year than in any other as I celebrate my big eighteenth. While I'm nowhere near prepared for adulthood, and while the road forward in my life isn't exactly clear right now, I can take solace in the fact that, at least for one day of the year, today, I don't have to worry about it.