Happy Birthday to Me

Another year older - on this very day. As a child and in my youth, I looked forward to this day with excitement. Later, that excitement faded a bit. You know how it is - why celebrate? I'm just another year older. :)

When Milka Meant a Holiday

I'm a child of Yugoslavia and of that time. We didn't have much. So when you got a Milka chocolate and a Coca-Cola, it felt like a real celebration. I remember when I was eight, I got my first pair of football boots for my birthday. Wow. Pure joy. It was a weekend - I woke up in the morning, rushed into the bedroom, and there was my gift waiting. I had just started playing football. Hardly anyone had real cleats back then - but I got a pair. Today, that's almost expected. All we want now is for our kids to play sports instead of staring at their phones. Everything has to be instant, on-demand.

But that's the world we're speeding into. Digitalization gives us so much, but unfortunately, it also takes things away. Sure, there's more good than bad - that I'll admit. But I can't shake the feeling that the bad could be even less if we, as a society, matured a bit faster. But that's a conversation for another time. After all, today is my birthday. :)

Around this day - more than around New Year's - I reflect on life. More than during the usual goal-setting frenzy, when gyms are packed and everyone's eating soups and salads. On my birthday - or sometime close to it - I've made some important life decisions. And this year is no different.

You Have to Make Time for Friends

I believe that's true for most of us. But then the question arises: how often do we still experience moments like that? The world spins faster and faster. Digitalization enables a lot - but authenticity often suffers. A long time ago, Andrej Šifrer wrote a song called "You have to make time for friends." But do we? I don't. The twists and turns of the past few years have reshuffled the cards in my life. And so I take too little time for myself. For friends. For those true friends where I feel warm, accepted, and wanted. And yes, part of the blame is mine. If you want to connect, you have to reach out. You can't always wait for others to invite you. They'll invite you once, twice, maybe three times... then no more. And they're right.

It's not that I don't want to. It's just that I too often catch myself saying: "Let me just finish this... and this... and this..." Then evening comes - and with it, tiredness. I'm no longer in the stage of life where my only concern was passing a university exam. Back then, we could survive even a few wild ČEDELJ weekends (yes, I recently laughed when I finally found out what that word means - partying from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon :) ).

It used to be much harder to arrange a get-together. The world wasn't nearly as connected. Today, every contact is just a click away. A memory from my childhood - one I'm sure many from my generation (and older) will remember: If I wanted to talk to a girl, I had to call her landline (no mobile phones back then), and be ready... If her dad answered, I'd sometimes hang up in panic or nervously ask, "Is XXX home?" The same thing happened on the intercom downstairs.

Today, we have countless ways to stay in touch. Birthday greetings "rain down" online. But how many phone calls do we make? Real ones. Genuine ones. We're no longer used to that. We'd rather post on someone's Facebook wall than actually call them. I do it too. Too often. And that's not okay.

Digitalization... Yes, It's Necessary. And I'm a big supporter of it. It gives in some areas, takes away in others. But I still believe it gives more than it takes.

My reflection this year stays in the spirit of Šifrer's words:
"You have to make time for friends."

And I'm adding one of my own:
"...and for yourself, too."