Five Steps to Take the Pressure Off Hosting

A case for throwing your own birthday party

I’m not unique in the fact that I’ve had a complicated relationship with my birthday over the years. When I was a kid, I was painfully shy and the prospect of a group of people singing “Happy Birthday” to me would literally bring me to tears. In my 20s, I felt torn between the pressures of what my friends wanted or thought would be fun and what I wanted…