All in a Date: Celebrating a Birthday on a National Holiday
People who were born on December 25 or January 1 can usually be sure to have their birthday off of work or school for the rest of their lives, unless they choose to work in a career like health care or the military. After all, even nurses and soldiers work on those holidays.
There is another group of people, lesser known but still recognizable, who will most likely never have to go to school on their birthday. These people, who celebrate turning a year older on November 11, may even avoid working on their birthday because, in many communities and careers celebrate that day as Veteran’s Day.
Seven of those people are current students at Armijo. Antony Aguayo Jimenez, Jordyn Atoigue, Kristieonna Carranza, Leila Cloud, Jonathan Sanchez and Matthew Vickroy all love having the day off to spend time with family and to avoid school. It is an important day beyond that, though, for Carranza, who said that it reminded her of her grandfather who passed away in the service of his country.
Having a birthday that is always a day off allows these students to spend time with their family and friends, but one of the reasons Atoigue likes it is because she gets to do more things and stay out later.
Most of these students were unique in their family, being the only one to have a holiday birthday, but Sanchez said that his little brother’s birthday has landed on Easter, and the third oldest in his family celebrates a Halloween birthday. For Carranza, she is the only one whose birthday is so late in the year. Her sister, brother and mother all celebrate their big days in the summer.
Not only do these students share a birthday, but most of them have shared the campus with a sibling. Vickroy’s younger sister Lauren and Aguayo’s younger brother David are both freshmen, Cloud’s older brother is a senior, Sanchez has a brother at Armijo and Atoigue’s sister graduated in 2016.
Their own involvement on campus varies. Atoigue is a cheerleader and Sanchez considered joining the Armijo Soccer team while Vickroy participates in Cross-Country and Track. And their future goals are as diverse as their present accomplishments. Carranza wants to go to college in Oregon while Sanchez is probably headed to Solano. Cloud plans to go to Solano first and then possibly go to UC Davis or Sac State to study medicine. Vickroy is also looking at UC Davis while Atoigue has her eye on San Jose State where she, too, plans to study for a medical career. Aguayo might go to UC Davis but maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll skip college altogether and find a good career.
Their music tastes vary, too. Vickroy likes hip-hop but Cloud prefers piano music. Antoigue likes R&B, like Aguayo and Carranza, and Rap like Sanchez.
Jah’nyl Hughes also celebrates his birthday on November 11, but he was unavailable for comment
