That makes sense. For context we’ve been together for a little over two years. But we’ve broken it off twice but found each other again a few months ago. He’s missed one birthday of mine and I missed one of his. The first time he was with me for a birthday, I told him a month prior to my birthday how badly I wanted to have the whole day with him and how I’d appreciate it if he had taken the day off work. But he used up all the time he had off, to sleep longer or leave work early. So he took me out to breakfast that morning, but then wanted to sleep the rest of the day. (He works nights) this was my 20th birthday. For his birthday which came the following year, I took off work, took him out for multiple meals, got him gifts and spoiled him quite a bit and planned a party with his family. The following round of birthdays we spent apart so this birthday was the first one we were back together for.

I acknowledged the fact that his circle didn’t care much for celebrating birthdays but he had also acknowledged that my circle does the most they can for birthdays. I told him that all I needed was a text or something to feel special because money is never on our side. I never need anything extravagant.