Rella Wang ’26 celebrated her birthday with friends in New Haven.
Three, two, one! You take a massive breath and aim for the candles. Your eyes light up with joy as the flames simultaneously dim down, and you make your wish. Surrounded by your friends and family, you recount the tumultuous year filled with ups and downs — another year in your life has passed.
At a boarding school, however, you may feel that you are unable to host a birthday celebration with the same level of enthusiasm and effort as you would otherwise. So, here are some ways that your fellow boarding students have celebrated their birthdays at Choate to inspire you when you plan your next birthday celebration.
Case Sakamoto ’23:
Case Sakamoto ’23 usually has a mug night in his dorm, and his parents will order pizza and cake. Like most, his birthday typically falls on a weekday, so he always ends up celebrating on the weekends, when he goes into town with his friends.
This year’s birthday celebration in New York City has been Sakamoto’s favorite one so far. With all his friends on campus during the week as well, he was able to see everyone he wanted. Although he wishes he could see his family, he feels at home in the boarding community at Choate. “Everyone’s there for you,” he shared.
Joshua Ramon ’24:
In the past, Joshua Ramon ’24 has celebrated his birthday by going out with friends and eating at restaurants. This year was no exception. Traveling to New York City, he and a group of friends went around the city to shop and eat.
Since his birthday landed on a weekday, people sang “Happy Birthday” for him inside the classroom. In his dorm, he received another celebration — a mug night consisting of doughnuts. Ramon said that he enjoyed his birthday at Choate the most this year because, “At this point, I’ve developed myself socially compared to freshman year.”
Before coming to Choate, Ramon would go out in the morning and afternoon with his family, and then have a cake at night. Ramon said that at Choate, “classes interfere a little bit,” making it harder to “find time to spend with people.”
Rella Wang ’26:
Rella Wang ’26 was lucky to have her birthday fall on a Wednesday this year, when she had an entire afternoon to do something fun. She ordered a cake from a local bakery, went to a New Haven restaurant called Taste of China, and had a celebration with her friends.
Wang was surprised when everyone sang “Happy Birthday” for her at a cappella rehearsal; a group member even brought her cupcakes.
In the dorm, Wang’s adviser bought her an ice cream cake, which the entire dorm shared after another rendition of the birthday song.
At junior boarding school last year, Wang did not get to celebrate her birthday to this extent.
“I just feel like, ‘Oh, my birthday was remembered by someone else, and I got to celebrate even though my family’s not here,’” Wang said. “So it makes me feel [like I] belong, and … it’s more like a birthday. It’s more special.”
Yuki Zhang ’24:
“Since I’m a boarder, there’s really a lot of limitations on what I can do,” said Yuki Zhang ’24. For her 18th birthday this year, she wanted to organize a more upscale party but was unable to do so at Choate.
Despite this, she has enjoyed a plethora of birthday celebrations over the past three years. In her third-form year, she had a celebration in the Bay Room of the Student Activities Center (SAC) with friends and boba. In her fourth-form year, she went out to a local hibachi restaurant, Iron Chef, with her friends and also celebrated with her water polo team.
This year, Zhang went out to Iron Chef again with her friends on a Friday night. Despite her original plans to go go-karting and bowling on Sunday, she ordered boba and Pokemoto with her friends to avoid an overload of people at these locations.
While birthday celebrations on campus may differ from those spent at home, they can be just as special. From traveling to the city to cozy mug nights in dorms, there are plenty of opportunities for students to create festive memories on their special day.
