The Birthday Hat

by Sue Gudenkauf

How do I Escape Adulthood?

I’ll tell you, family brings out the best of this in me. For my birthday this year, I happened to take a road trip with my sister, her husband, 3 nieces, and my parents to visit my oldest niece in college about 10 hours away. It wasn’t just my birthday, but I also share a birthday (1 day apart) with my now 17-year-old niece. In the spirit of a road trip, I wanted to help make her birthday extra fun and silly (like she would do with her friends). So, I decided to start a new family tradition and being that my birthday was the very next day, I knew I would have to follow in accord. So, the day before we left, I (on a whim) bought a Jester hat from the Lemonade Stand to have the birthday girl wear it on her special day. Needless to say, with that hat on, you couldn’t walk into a restaurant, gas station, store, hotel or anywhere without getting a smile from someone coupled with comments that ensued from strangers….’Nice hat!’….’Way cool’…..’Love the hat!’….’Way to go!’ People were smiling as they passed by – grinning from ear to ear, which as we know, smiling is quite contagious. So, the next day, any embarrassment my niece felt in wearing a jester hat in public was passed along graciously to me, which I have to say was a joy to see the smiles that occurred on other people’s faces.

What a blast!

So, from here on out, the hat will be passed along (shipped, delivered, whatever means necessary) to the next birthday in the family, and they will get to wear it for the day. Hopefully I can convince all ages in my family to wear it in public and let the joy and silliness of escaping adulthood be passed along to random strangers.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!