Jace Barry was a little too young to remember his first birthday, but he was 8 years old for his second.
He remembers it was special.
“My mom wakes me up early in the morning, probably like two hours before school,” he remembered. “She screams and celebrates with me for a little bit, and just hugs me. She said I’m the only child she has met (who was) born (on Leap Day).”
Barry, a sixth-grader at Columbus Middle School turns 12 Thursday, though it will be only the third time he’s celebrated on his actual birthday, which only comes around once every four years.
He’s the only student with a Leap Day birthday in Columbus Municipal School District. Barry normally doesn’t flaunt it, though, instead keeping it close to the vest, even from many of his friends.
“I haven’t told them,” he admitted with a bit of a grin.
By contrast, there are six students with Leap Day birthdays at Caledonia alone — two each at the elementary, middle and high school.
Two of them, sixth-graders Navaeh Brown and MaKinzie Clark, met last year at a church Vacation Bible School and became fast friends.
“(Navaeh) told someone else what day your birthday was,” Clark said. “And so I asked her what day her birthday was and then I told her I had the same birthday.”
They have more in common than that.
Both are in the same world history, language, science and math classes. Both are in band, with Clark playing mellophone and Brown playing clarinet.
“I am a Squidward wannabe,” Brown said, referencing the “SpongeBob SquarePants” character that plays the same instrument.
Neither was expected to be a Leap Day baby, either, as they both said they were born a few days before their due date.
Both Clark and Brown said they typically schedule their birthday celebrations on the last weekend of February or the first weekend of March. Brown expects her dad’s phone to “blow up” with celebratory texts Thursday. Clark figures it will be much like a regular day for her, with a party planned for this weekend.
Barry, for his part, celebrates on Feb. 28 most years, though he admits it’s not quite the same.
But Thursday, he hopes to visit the trampoline park, something he did on his last “real” birthday in 2020.
“I just like jumping,” Barry said.
Kevin Edwards is news editor and reports on Starkville and Oktibbeha County government.
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