OMG! You just made a hole-in-one, and nobody’s around to marvel with you. You call friends and they congratulate you, but in the end, what do they always celebrate about you?

Your age, of course.

How about the day you completed your first 5K? The time you lost 25 pounds and kept it off for, oh, a couple of months. The day you gave birth to triplets, and they get the presents every year.

Quite often they don’t understand which moments you hold as the most significant in your life.

The problem with other folks celebrating you is this: Quite often they don’t understand which moments you hold as the most significant in your life.

“Oh, sweetie, you made it to 70! Here’s to you, old duck.”

As if you’ve accomplished nothing more in your life than accumulating years. As if your parents just stood by while you had all the birthday contractions.

Birthday celebrations, I’ve always believed, should be organized for those Noble

Two who tangoed through the startto-finish labor. Granted, part of the work might’ve involved sparky fun. The point is, it’s the atypical infant who contributes more than a few head butts, kicks and a yowl to that celebratory day.

You deserve to celebrate what you wish to honor.

Then, too, lots of us are alone. We live alone; sometimes we don’t see another soul for days at a time. Our friends may be delighted to hang with us, and even throw a birthday party at us. Still, that’s different than celebrating our life’s most prized achievements.

Once a year, decide what moment in your life you’d like to honor, and then plan your one-guest party. Forget the kith and kin here; this is all about you (and they don’t get any).

Plan ahead. Pick a date; preferably mark out 36–48 hours, because this is going to be one heck of a splendid event (dare I say “bash”?). Decide how you want to celebrate within your limited budget (if your budget is unlimited, you don’t get to celebrate), and then start plotting out the details.

It’s your day, or two, of honoring a personal achievement, so treat the guest of honor to the very best you can afford. It’s a known fact that if you talk about an idea too much, the execution loses some critical energy. Keep it a secret, at least until it’s over. Relish the sacred or profane preparations. Decide what you’ll wear, what you’ll imbibe, ingest, impart, jettison (the party may involve purging old flames, or a child who turned into a lemon), and select party favors. No fair selecting a playmate, unh-unh. It’s all about you, babe.

Start planning a celebration of the most eccentrically interesting, fabulously fascinating person in your life: you.

For the rebel who forged a different path through life, who perhaps hangs onto secret moments of pleasure or triumph; for the staunchly independent spirit who eschews instructions, directions, advice, commands, and other forms of “guidance”; and especially for the timid, self-abnegating mice among us who have never, ever, given ourselves the gift of center stage, it’s time to get inventive. Start planning a celebration of the most eccentrically interesting, fabulously fascinating person in your life: you.

You are probably asking, if I plan my own celebration how can it be a surprise?

Wait and see.