I have spent my anniversary alone. It was by choice, in beautiful Stockholm and I was actually with a friend but didn’t tell him about it. So I should say I celebrated my birthday alone. In reality I don’t care a lot about these occasions. They are days like any other, but I remember specifically my father having spent a couple of birthdays alone, because of quarrels with my mother. He felt truly alone and the memory resonated over years in his mind. For me on the other hand this birthday might have been the best of my life. I’ve had some pretty bad ones, parents forcing themselves to pretend to like each other to make me happy and failing. Grandparents caring, but really to follow their own agenda, not considering me as having an opinion on the matter. A birthday party with other kids, as the poorest kid around and kind of an outsider who talked differently than anybody else. As an adult I don’t like birthdays, presents, neither giving nor receiving. I don’t like artificial attention. Forced pro forma gatherings. So I tend to go to eat somewhere fancy with my girlfriend and that’s it. She is also the only one who consistently finds good presents, things that support the lifestyle I want to have at any given moment. This year we take some distance from each other. So I went alone to a new city and decided to forget about it. And then it became this ideal day, where 3 people independently made me 3 spontaneous presents of just the right kind I like and spent time with me without me even asking. My girlfriend gifted me liberty, not just that day, but the very look I have travelling is made up of presents she gave me because she understood and accepted that I need to travel, to find myself but also to detach myself a bit from her. A friend found a Chinese name for me, which describes me perfectly and will be useful when I will travel there later on. The third friend gifted me motivation. She learned to play the melody from the Ode to Joy, which I cherish above anything else on the piano, as a complete beginner. Freedom, welcoming and acceptance and mutual inspiration have been my gifts this year and made for the first time I didn’t feel like a weirdo not quite fitting in, as a simple boyfriend having his special day, but like a valuable person appreciated for who he is concretely in this very moment.