Welcome back to We Can Do Hard Things.

Pod Squad, it is birthday month for Amanda and me.

I actually am turning 50 this month.

And if you've ever had a birthday that made you want to crawl into bed and also throw a parade and also cry in the shower and also text every person you've ever loved, like, are we okay?

Welcome.

God, birthdays can be hard and weird and great.

It's like birthdays are not just cake day.

They're also this like spotlight, like a pop quiz, like some kind of referendum on.

Do I matter enough?

Do I have enough friends?

Am I loved?

Have I achieved what I should have achieved? Am I really

seen? And if the answers don't arrive in the exact form we imagined with enough texts from friends,

big plans made by our people, constant enthusiasm, proof we're loved. Our brains go, well, that's that.

I am unloved. Good times. In this episode, we try to name why birthdays bring so many feels,

how expectations set us up for failure, and how comparison eats us alive, how time turns into this tyrant with

a clipboard, and we talk about what actually helps, telling the truth about what we want,

dropping the secret tests, practicing gratitude for what is, and most importantly,

learning how to celebrate each other outside of one single day. So none of us is waiting once a year to find out if we're loved.

Okay.

Let's take a deep breath and let's fix birthdays.

Okay, well then.

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