Forest Lake native turns 15 years old – in leap years

Rondi Pepin now thinks of her special birthdate as a fun conversation piece

Sharing a birthday with a holiday can be seen as an annoyance or a joy – sometimes both. Having a birthday that lies on Feb. 29, a date that only happens once every four years, can be a challenge as well as fun, like it has been for Forest Lake graduate Rondi Pepin.

“This year, I get a real birthday, and I’m actually turning 15. And some people don’t get it, some people laugh, but I’m like ‘No, for real – I’ve only had – it’ll be 15 real birthdays,” Pepin joked.

It’s just one of the struggles of being a “leaper,” someone who was born on Feb. 29, a date that occurs just once every four years. But what made the already disappointing situation harder was that her father’s birthday fell on Feb. 27, resulting in joint birthday parties.

“We always had it together, … and I always thought, ‘Ugh, I never get my own day,’” Pepin recalled. She now understands her mother’s desire to combine the birthday festivities, but at the time, she remembers being frustrated.

But when Feb. 29 did roll around growing up, she celebrated it to the fullest extent.

“It was extra, extra special, especially at school. … When you don’t get that real birthday every year, when you finally get that real birthday, it’s a big deal. It’s worth celebrating,” Pepin said.

Having a birthday on Leap Day has never been as simple as any other birthday, but Pepin has now grown fond of it. As she’s grown into adulthood with children and grandchildren, she enjoys the humor in telling people her extraordinarily young age – she’s only “15” in leap years.

“Now that I’m older, I don’t share the big number. I always go with the little number, obviously, because why not?” she said.

She jokes with some of her old classmates that she’ll visit them in the nursing home when she is a young, fresh 21-year-old while they’re in their 90s.

Having a birthday on Leap Day also poses some strange challenges. She received her driver’s license with no qualms, but sometimes online software requires her to enter her date of birth incorrectly, as some don’t offer an option for choosing Feb. 29, which Pepin bemoaned as feeling like “you just don’t exist,” Pepin said. “There is a lot of frustration, I guess in that sense.”

She wishes this extra day that’s added to the calendar year was more widely acknowledged by peers growing up, and even now. She said having a birthdate that doesn’t exist every three out of four years can cause a feeling of non-existence.

“It’s not talked about a lot. … I think it just needs to be shared more in schools and out there that, yeah, we were born, we’re here,” Pepin said.

Still, she said, “for the most part, it’s kind of a fun conversation piece.”

Now that she’s an adult – in regular years – Pepin chooses to celebrate her birthday on both Feb. 28 and March 1. She typically receives birthday wishes from friends on both of those dates during non-leap years. But a few of her siblings – and a few others – are still persnickety about when they extend those birthday greetings, not sharing a “Happy Birthday” message until March 1, the date after Feb. 28, because that’s the best date to reflect the date she was born.

“It’s been that way all my life, where a couple siblings are like, ‘Nope, it’s not your birthday today’ – you know on the 28th – ‘You weren’t born [yet],’” Pepin recalled.

Pepin is amidst some 200,000 individuals in the United States who are “leapers.”

“In a sense it makes you feel very unique,” Pepin said.

That additional day of February is a result of Earth’s annual rotation around the sun equating to around 365.24 days long. The quarter of each year results in the need to add a calendar day in order to ensure the four seasons happen during the same months annually.

According to the Smithsonian Institution, since each leap day adds around 44 extra minutes to a year, it causes Feb. 29 to be skipped sometimes to make sure Earth’s time doesn’t get too skewed. The last time leap day was skipped was in 1900, with the next scheduled in 2100.

Pepin’s plans for celebrating her birthday this year – on her actual date of birth – is with family and friends.

“It’s the only day of the year that’s different, except every four years. When it does come around, it’s a cause to ramp up the celebration,” she said.