Epitome Anatomy: BIRTHDAY (Plus Int'l Women's Day 2026 Perspective)
EPISODE SUMMARY:
"Birthday is more meaningful personally because it's an anniversary of your own birth that you're still alive, that you exist."
Wish shares intimate insights from her own birthday celebration—a quiet day of self-awareness, museum visits, and Arsenal F.C. dreams at Emirates Stadium. She explores the deeper philosophy behind celebrating life’s most personal milestone and questions the societal norms surrounding birthday hype. You'll learn how personal anniversaries mark our journey of survival and growth, whether we’re a child, a rebellious teen, or a wise adult.
PLUS a segment on International Women's Day 2026, and a few anecdotes about women leadership in the workplace - showing that every year lived is also a call for continued change.
References from the show:
https://psmag.com/economics/why-female-ceos-are-more-likely-to-be-fired/
Listen to the Episode
MAIN TOPICS:
00:00 - Introduction and birthday reflections
02:03 - Personal birthday celebration insights
04:49 - Meaning of birthdays and societal expectations
06:14 - Personal growth and milestone reflections
08:10 - Intentionality in birthday greetings
10:02 - Childhood and teenage birthday experiences
13:25 - Changes in birthday attitudes over time
15:20 - Embracing milestones and quiet celebrations
17:13 - Human connection beyond birthdays
22:09 - Women's Day reflections and gender issues
LISTEN, RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE & SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!
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Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (00:00.118)
I just had my birthday a few days ago. There were many notions I went through during this period of my life and at the same time I kept forgetting that it was my birthday that day. I think that my view of birthdays may have turned a little bit. It's another phase and let's discuss this in this episode. Plus, an extra segment about the
previous International Women's Day and my reflections about it.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (00:40.14)
Welcome to Human Thesaurus Presents Epitome Anatomy. My name is Wish, a retired tech operator, indie author, cat mom, and a self-aware life explorer. Epitome Anatomy is an opinion piece on the power of words and their ethos that I extracted from this life. Ready for the epitome of birthday? Let's go.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (01:09.999)
Our keyword is birthday. According to Wikipedia, a birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person or the figurative birth of an institution. Birthday originates from the late 14th century Middle English birtheday or birthdai. Stemming from the Old English ġebyrddæġ, a compound of ġebyrd or which means birth.
and dæġ, which means day. I love Old English so much. It originally meant the anniversary of a birth or a saint's feast day with the definition day on which one is born, becoming a standard in the 1570s.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (02:03.449)
I will share with you, I think it's over sharing, but I will share with you my typical birthday, at least for this year. It's just quite quiet. I think I just wanted it a little bit quiet, so I'm gonna give you some run through. So I slept in in the morning, I slept a little bit extra, and then I had lunch with my hubby, a very nice one. And then I went to the museum for an exclusive access.
as a preview at V &A for a new collection. It's not actually new. They renovated it and reinvigorated it. So I went there and then I had to venture. had no choice. I really have to avoid Harrods. I do avoid Harrods to be honest with you, but I went there because my godchild, hello Elle, wanted this limited edition collab from Jelly Cat.
and Harrod's collab for a glazy chocolate plushie. So I had to go there, but I was in and out. And my favorite English breakfast tea is also from Harrod's. So I had to rush there and just get those two items and get the hell out of there as fast as I can. And then I went back home, chill out, and we went to a pub for
I really wanted pub food and a few pints. And then that was it. There was my day. And also the next day, my hubby's present for me is something that I always dreamt up since I was 18 when I started watching football. And I've really chosen Arsenal FC to become a fan of Arsenal. It was.
Arsenal versus Everton and my hubby is an Everton fan. So it's a very good opportunity for us to watch them in real life. I always wanted to go to Emirates Stadium and have that feeling. And we get a chance to do that last Saturday. It was phenomenal. I was deeply touched by being there.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (04:20.562)
If you're not a football fan or a sports fan, probably you wouldn't understand, but there's this something, right? Like if you go to something that you always wanted to go to just for the experience, it was such an experience for me, especially Arsenal won. It was a good game. Well, there are some funny things happened then, that's football for you. I was really happy and elated about that.
So that's the run through of my tiny birthday. It's not quiet per se, but I don't make it as big of a deal as I used to. I will explain that to you further. When my birthday came, my question to myself this year was, why celebrate birthdays? Simple answer, right? We celebrate that we're alive and we're venturing to another year.
It's our own personal New Year's. You know, it's our personal New Year's celebration that we got a chance, we got this privilege to survive another year and entering a new year. I think it's more important to me to reflect on your life and what you did versus the general New Year's day, January 1st.
First birthday is more meaningful personally because you know, it's an anniversary of your own birth that you're still alive, that you exist. You are doing something and what that reflection is. Sometimes there are bad birthdays. I remember when I turned 26, I was really depressed. I didn't go out and thankfully at that time I was working from home. I earned a living catering to international.
This was the time that remote working is not as common as what it is now that this was 2006. So I was already doing that. Everybody thinks that I was overseas, but I was just at home and I was quite depressed. I think we have to go through that as well sometimes. So when I deeply reflected on my birthday that I turned 26 and that was the time when I questioned what the hell am I doing? Where am I going?
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (06:43.77)
Am I doing the things that will make my future self proud of me? Like all of that questions. I keep on thinking about, why am I celebrating my birthday? Why do I not feel like celebrating my birthday? Why don't I want it to be more extravagant or fabulous or something like that? I suppose it's all about how our environment or our society is dictating
what we were supposed to do or what we were supposed to feel about different issues, especially for as meaningful or as regular as a birthday. Is birthday about just winning? Everybody would treat you better on your birthday and then they will say, it's your day. It's always so nice. Like everybody's so nice to you during your birthday. Is it like...
very commercialized versus we understand internally why a birthday means something to someone. I think I wanted to just go back to internalizing that. When I greet someone a happy birthday, I want to mean it way more than I already meant it, if you know what I mean. Especially for people that you know personally.
When you greet them a happy birthday, it's an obligation. Or nowadays, really, I'm really bad at memorizing everybody's birthday. But when I remember or when I look at my calendar, then great, you know, I would greet. I wanted it to be more intentional. I wanted it this year or even the past few years, I think when I'm greeting people, it's because really like I do love them. I do care for them.
I wanted my greetings of a happy birthday had something more. So that's why I think some of the recipients of this, I don't even say happy. I say, hey, have a wondrous birthday, have a marvelous birthday. It's because I mean that. I wanted them to own their birthdays, their anniversary of their lives. And that's the best way I could kind of convey that whether sometimes we lose.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (09:08.826)
meaning of words because it's mundane, it's regular, it's basic, it's normal way of going through life. I will always ask that it's birthday about winning that day, maybe, maybe, right? Because you're celebrating, you're celebrating your own anniversary of living through life and whatever it is, especially our New World Order is becoming undone as
the Canadian PM said about, who is he? Carney. Yeah. So that kind of stuck with me, but I digress. Let's go back to what does birthday mean to me. I would like to rehash this a little bit with you. was rehashing this the past few days. That's why I got delayed recording this, but I'm just going to go through it like as...
Not too deep, but something that is meaningful as well. What does birthday mean to me throughout the phases of my life? Not just my life, but in my observation of birthdays in our lives. You know, the first phase would be when we were kids, when we were babies and when we were kids. I think in Filipino terms, we celebrated on the first year and another big birthday, like big parties on the seventh.
year and then the next one that's like a massive birthday is on the 18th. I think that's the coming of age. When you were kids, I think it means so much more to the people who love you. I think they celebrate you when we were children because it's the beautiful becoming of children growing up and celebrating that keeping us alive.
when we were kids. So I think that was the celebration and that means more to our loved ones because you know, what the hell do we know? There are some privilege to some children who are able to tell their parents or their family or their relatives, I want K-pop demon hunter theme for my birthday and things like that. That I think that's a massive privilege or even just receiving gifts. That's a privilege.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (11:29.986)
not all children have this privilege, have this opportunity to celebrate their birthdays. again, that's another coin flip of the story. And then when we were teens, a lot of us are rebellious or we overcomplicate things in our head because our frontal cortex is not fully developed. So I think there are different
ways of accepting birthdays. I remember when I was a teenager just looking back to it. During my birthdays, it seems like everybody celebrates me and I feel a little bit embarrassed about it. When I was a teenager, I don't want to be the center of attention at all. I was only looking forward to my birthday because I received money from my relatives. So I have extra money to buy what?
new shoes, new shirt, new pants, something like that. It's more material things that I look forward to at that time because when you say, it's my birthday and my thoughts at that time, okay, then what? But when I got to the point that during my late teens, I think of my birthday as, I'm closer to reaching my ambition to become an adult and
earn my own money. Yes, I was thinking about that earlier on in my life. I knew what I wanted to do. And then, you know, we turn into a young adult. When I was in my 20s, I really don't like celebrating my birthday. I don't really like people greeting me on my birthday, although it made me feel obligated to treat my family during my birthday because it looks like it's a big deal for them.
more than me, but I never really liked celebrating my birthday in my 20s. But when I turned 30 onwards, I did. I started celebrating my birthday a little bit more. I started embracing that more that, oh my gosh, I'm 30 now. It's amazing that I'm still living at the age of 30. I've always been a big fan of rock and a lot of, you know, our heroes at that time.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (13:53.892)
unfortunately died at the age of 27. So when I was 30, it's like, I surpassed them because, I think when you're in that kind of zone as a developing young adult, you kind of reflect your own life by seeing other people's lives. And it's not just about comparison. It just feels that you are relating to these people. So when I was in my thirties onwards, I started celebrating. was like, you know what?
this is a cool thing and I should be celebrating my birthday. I think in my thirties, one of the best birthdays I've had was when I was 33. It was a big celebration and I cross pollinate, you may, different groups of friends and they were all there. And that's when I realized that I've got a nice boyfriend, not my husband. I've got a lot of friends.
And that was so meaningful to me until now because a lot of them I retained in my life. And that was a great turning point for me when I was 33. Onwards, I was just celebrating my birthday the way it is. Fast forward to my 40s, I celebrated more quietly. Quietly in a way that there's a quiet satisfaction to it. There's a quiet embrace of
life of my peace, of coming this far, achieving peace within me. So the way I celebrate it is not something extravagant, something huge. It's more of celebrating the things that I love. All the more that I go through life, all the more that I go through year per year nowadays.
What I found is that there are lesser people who are greeting me. And that's great. Again, I don't really like to be the center of attention when it comes to just the birthday. I feel like, to be honest with you, you know, with all the confidence that I have, I feel that when people are greeting me, happy birthday, I feel embarrassed again, like a teenager. I'm just overwhelmed by the love of people celebrating me for my day.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (16:17.264)
I don't know if you can relate to this. I'm sure some of you would. It's just overwhelming sometimes because when they say happy birthday and you're like, my gosh, thank you. And then I kind of feel embarrassed. But at the same time, you're like, wow, these people love me. These people remember. yes, this is a big note. I keep on saying this very consistently, especially the past few years.
I don't really care if people forget my birthday or greeting me on my birthday. I never take it against anyone. I will only take it against the people who are the closest, super closest to me, right? Like my brother and my husband. The rest, if they forget it, it's fine. Because we all go through life. We know a lot of people. Especially nowadays in the digital age, we...
tend to have a lot of distractions and we don't have this physical piece of paper on the wall with all the dates circled whose birthday it is. Even though yes, it's at the palm of our hands, we have the calendar at the palm of our hands 24-7 if we want to. But why take it against someone that they didn't greet you unless they're again your best friend, your hubby, your partner or
your brothers and sisters and your mom and dad. The rest, it's fine. Nobody should be obligated, right? If they forget, they forget. Like, don't take it against them. I never take it against anyone who never greet me on my birthday. They probably forgot or they probably didn't really know per se.
It's okay. I'm guilty as well. Like when I greet someone because I just realized that I missed their birthday and I was like, I'm so sorry I missed your birthday, belated happy birthday, et cetera, et cetera. When we feel bad, it's most likely because those people are important to us. That's really more of a projection when we feel bad about missing someone's birthday. That's really, really sweet. But that's how...
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (18:33.836)
amazing human connection is. It's good that we kind of leverage on the thoughts that really counts and the love, the care that we have for other people, not necessarily just on the birthday itself, but life in general, how we support them and what level of support do we give to different levels of friendship or to different levels of our relationship with different people. With all of this,
Wow, there are lots of reflections here. I just have like cliff notes, but I am actually unleashing my thoughts about birthdays with you here. My reflection as well when it comes to the numbers, like what age we have, is all about, I think, the wisdom that I gain, the growth in terms of physical, mental, and emotional, and spiritual.
Okay? And of course the aging versus the growing up that I've done the past year or the past few years onwards. Like right now I was like, gosh, I'm not really 20 anymore. Everything is changing physically. I'm now in my mid forties. There are lots of changes. My eyesight is really getting worse. It was getting better before, but now it's getting worse.
There are physical things, physical manifestations that I could see and I was just like, you know, what's the best I could do? Just really love my life and the way I know how in terms of physical aging, I'm quite proactive with my health, with the way I monitor things. So that's that. I'm doing my best for that. Another question that I asked myself.
What's the meaning of birthdays versus other holidays? All of the holidays, all of these adversaries, all of these celebrations are all bookmarks in our lives. These are bookmarks like post-its that we remind ourselves that life is worth living for or finding answers, finding truths.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (20:59.642)
stopping and breathing and thinking and reflecting on where we are. So it's good to have these changes of seasons. Well, not all countries have really changes of seasons, but you know what I mean? Different changes in different kind of struggles, different challenges, different meanings, each holidays that we celebrate in every year of our lives.
So they all have their own meanings. Birthday is highly personal. Birthday is also something that is a collective reflection personally and other people reflect on the remembrance of you. yes, that's how beautiful it is. How do you celebrate your birthday? In what way do you do extravagant things, crazy things just for the day or do you?
always look forward to your birthday? Do you like being the main character for one day each year? You can comment and share your thoughts with me.
Okay, we'll run an extra segment today quickly about this year's International Women's Day 2026, last 8th of March. I have some reflection about this on a personal note. But of course, it's never just about me because this is such a massive undertaking for women's issues around the world, especially the ones without their voices nor rights are heard from the simplest necessities that each girl should have.
but unfortunately that's not reality. Most women don't have the rights just yet. We're really just moving inch by inch, but I think those inches still mean something. Women's health are getting more acknowledgement, we're getting more studies, but it's still not enough. There are still a lot of things that should be done for the rights of women, but I think there are some things that are really, really
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (23:08.228)
hard to erase that fast. So I think we just need to keep on going with these kind of organizations. But a lot of these movements, I'm not saying this IWD itself, but there are lots of girl groups that I avoid on going because I had bad experiences with some of them. I'm going to get to that next time. It's going to be a long storytelling, but
I digress again. I wanted to highlight more about this equality thing. I just wanted to pull up some statistics, right? There's a few studies, there are a few recent papers about, I Googled this, okay? I Googled statistics of women leadership getting fired for accountability issues versus men. I'm not a feminist, I'm not part of any movement, but I am pro-women, I am pro-protecting women.
and what we have to go through every day. And one of the things that I experienced massively is about women leadership and how we always get the brunt of the accountability when it comes to the workplace. I'm going to give you a little bit of this in one article for psmag.com. I will put this on my show notes on my website, humenthesaurus.co. Women in top leadership positions.
Particularly CEOs are approximately 45 % more likely to be dismissed than their male counterparts. When the performance is poor, women are significantly more likely to be fired. Men, hold onto it. They gaslight and they still stay there. Sometimes they think and wonder still, it's like, how come they're still here? They're friggin' incompetent. But it does happen and...
There's a high velocity turnover for 24 % of female CEOs leave their post within two years, more than twice than 10 % rate of men. Because women are more conscientious when they're failing and things like that, or they're not doing the job properly. They're conscientious enough to pass it along because, okay, I can't do this. I'm failing. I don't deserve this.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (25:27.36)
We're more introspective when it comes to that because we know that there are lots of things at hand and we don't want to fuck it up so that the company will suffer further because we're all nurturers. think in that way, according to CNBC, women CEOs are targeted at around 2.5 times their representation rate in shareholder campaigns, demanding changes or removal, often leading to replacement by men.
Yes. It looks like there are lots of international cases right now where women are in prison being accountable or being judged and accountable by their criminal activities. Yes, they are criminals, but they're more likely in jail and the ones who did the same thing, they're either number one, dead or number two, they're just there being billionaires and still having power.
doesn't necessarily need to be billionaires, but they're still holding on to their powers. According to HR review conversely in 2023, high profile departures indicated that a rising share of women in CEO roles has led to a higher although sometimes personal turnover, like 30 % of women departing versus 25 % of men. Yep, that's where we are.
Women are getting trampled, although they're more conscientious as leaders. I'm more opinionated about this because I've been there before. Even though I'm retired and I got over it, I still have a gripe on some discrepancies and inequality in the workplace for women. It's also sad. I feel sad when I'm whining or ranting about this because
There are more women who are suffering out there who never even got the right to even work or study. We're still not safe. We still don't feel safe when we're out in public. Yeah, that's the way it is. Reflect on that. That was my plus. It's quite negative and depressing, but I think the plus thing there is that we're solving more about our, and our reproductive systems are getting more studied.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (27:49.74)
So yes, there's still hope. There's still hope and we still have to go through and push through our lives. Until next time, ciao.
Wish Ronquillo Peacocke (28:05.402)
Comment, like, subscribe, and share wherever you listen to podcasts. Epitome Anatomy is produced by me and Jeremiah Ronquillo. Music by Ketsa UK. All rights reserved by Wishblizz Media. Thank you and see you in the next episode.
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