Not My Birthday: Members of the East Community Share Their Leap Day Birthday Experiences

Spanish teacher Anna Thiele graduated high school, taught for nine years, two at East and had a child — and only after seven birthdays, technically.

Thiele is part of the 0.00068% of people in the world with a birthday on Leap Day.

“I do like how unique it is,” Thiele said. “It’s kind of fun to tell people and it’s kind of fun to say my birthday.”

For Thiele, Leap Years are the only years when she truly knows when her birthday is. On non-Leap Years, she celebrates either on Feb. 28 or March 1 with family and friends — as if it’s any other birthday.

“When I don’t have my birthday, I prefer to celebrate on Feb. 28 because that feels like my birthday,” Thiele said. “But it doesn’t feel official until March 1.”

Freshman Kiresten Meredith is one of the few that shares a birthday with Thiele. Meredith, like Thiele, enjoys the uniqueness of only having a true birthday every four years and makes those actual birthdays even more extravagant.

Every Leap Year Meredith’s parents take her out to dinner at Garrozzos, where she always orders “The Hill” — a big plate of spaghetti — and a plate of fettuccine and they get her a frog-themed gift. And she has the joy of blowing out 29 candles on her big, purple cookie cake.

“My parents have this thing of getting me a little frog something [on my actual birthday] because it’s a Leap Year and I usually go more all out,” Meredith said.

While both Thiele and Meredith enjoy the individuality of having such a unique birthday, it doesn’t come without its challenges. The two find that when registering or signing up for accounts, there rarely is a Feb. 29 option to enter for their birthdate.

And for Thiele, the year of her 21st birthday she and her friends went to a bar on Feb. 28 but she wasn’t allowed to drink until March 1.

“My friends and I were really curious when we turned 21, but they wouldn’t serve me until March 1,” Thiele said.

Despite these complications, Thiele loves her birthday and takes it as part of who she is, always joking with students about how she’s really “only 8 years old” and explaining to others what Leap Day is.

“I’ve never wished [my birthday was on a different day],” Thiele said. “I’ve always loved my birthday, no shame.”

This year Thiele and Meredith celebrated their birthdays on the 28th and are looking forward to an official Leap Year next year when Thiele will turn 8 and Meredith will turn 4.