Tuesday, 06 November 2001 | My other birthday

Today isn't my birthday, even though I have a birth certificate that says it is. Actually I have two birth certificates, an oddity that wasn't discovered until I prepared to get my driving permit just before I turned 15. At the time, my mom couldn't find my original birth certificate (which was needed for the permit), so she contacted the hospital where I was born and had a copy sent. The copy had all the information correct on it, except that it claimed I was born on November 6th rather than November 8th. Not a big deal—I mean, it's only two days—but I was a little concerned that I had been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day all my life (though my mother assured me I hadn't been).

So of course I took advantage of the two-day grace period (it suited my impatience), and for years, November 6th was printed on my license, long after my mom found my original certificate and confirmed that I had, indeed, been born on the 8th. There were awkward moments…I never knew what date to fill in on official documents (I didn't want to lie or be inconsistent, though I had to do one or the other), and occasionally I had to explain my situation to someone behind those official documents, only to get a blank stare in return. Finally, (sometime after I turned 21), I had my license changed, and November 6th instantly became just another day of the year. All that's happened is that my old friends are permanently confused as to when my birthday really is.