PARTY OF ONE

It’s the day you’ve been looking forward to all year long. The balloons, the music, the cake— everything’s perfect! There’s just one little thing missing— the people. But you can’t turn twenty-one without your favorite people, right?

In the past couple of years, everything has looked a little different and felt a little different. It can be overwhelming and isolating, but it can’t possibly change birthdays…could it? Somehow, Covid has managed to even take that away.

You can’t have a party without people, so there won’t be any decorations, your gifts will most likely take two weeks to ship to you, and you’ll be blaring music by yourself. It makes Melanie Martinez’s “Pity Party” sound like a good time.

Everyone has had to deal with this problem at least once since the beginning of the pandemic, so what did we as people do? We adapted and decided that losing our people just wasn’t okay. Long story short, we found new ways to party.

Drive-by celebrations and virtual hangouts became a norm, which included some of the coolest decorations, people started realizing that gift cards go a long way and can arrive in an instant, and blasting music on FaceTime with your bffs can be just as satisfying as being in person.

Sure, a “party of one” isn’t what we’re used to, but with all of our friends and family just a phone call away, is it really just a “party of one?”

STYLIST: KATEY KEMP PHOTOGRAPHER: MICHELLE DASCHBACH WRITER: HEIDI BOOT MODEL: GRACE HUDDLESTON MAKEUP: NYIA SAWYER HAIR: MADDI MCCALLA