Featured photo by Shauna Reynolds
Story by Shauna Reynolds
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For most, an extra day at the end of February is an anomaly. A little extra something before flipping the calendar to March. For MTSU sophomore AnnaLee Casto, it’s a big deal.
Casto was born twenty years ago. This week she will be celebrating her fifth birthday. The theatre major from Clarksville, Tennessee, was born on Feb. 29, 2004 – leap day. It has been four long years since her last birthday.
Casto said that her family always made her birthday special.
“We would go to Disney World every four years,” she said. “This will be the first birthday I’ve had when I won’t go to Disney World.”
They celebrated on the off years as well, but it has always been more subdued.
“All the times that it wasn’t my real birthday we’d do something really small,” she said. “So, the leap year is the big year. It’s the year we’d do everything. And then every other year was just a dinner or something.”
This includes milestone years that don’t have a leap day, including her 18th and upcoming 21st birthdays.
When Casto was younger, she would explain leap year to her puzzled friends.
“I would say ‘Oh, I was born on February 29, I’m only three years old.’’
Her classmates didn’t always understand.
“They would say ‘What? That’s not a thing,’ so I would try to educate them about it.”
A quick refresher: Earth’s seasons and the Gregorian Calendar year are based on the length of the planet’s orbit around the sun, which takes a little over 365 days. Those extra five hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds are negligible in one year, but they add up. Once every four years, an extra day is added to the end of February to compensate and keep our seasons in line. That overcompensates a bit, so an extra day is not added in years divisible by 100 unless they are also divisible by 400. For Casto, this means she’ll have to wait until she is 100 years old in 2104 to celebrate her 24th birthday.
It’s a little much to explain to third or seventh grade friends.
While Casto’s family will not be visiting Disney World this year, she suspects there will be a different kind of celebration.
“I have a little hunch that my friends have planned something,” she said.
Casto doesn’t regret having a birthday that sometimes requires explanation.
“A lot of people ask me if I wish I had another birthday,” she said. “I don’t. I think this is so unique.”
She said that she sees her leap day birthday as a part of her identity.
“Not everybody has this birthday, and it’s something that I really enjoy. I think it’s something fun to tell other people, too. I don’t wish I had another one. Yeah, I love it.”
Make sure to wish Casto a happy birthday if you see her. It’s going to be four years before you get the chance again.
To contact Lifestyles Editor Destiny Mizell and Assistant Lifestyles Editor Shamani Salahuddin, email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com.
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