For her sixteenth birthday, her friends gave her a package containing a soother and other baby items. After all she had only turned four. At primary school, the teachers drew flags on the board when it was someone’s birthday. “On one occasion for me it said: ‘Hurray, it’s not really Marit’s birthday’”. Add to that the jokes like “Could your parents not have planned that better?” As a child, Tolkamp was not always happy with her birthday. She is used to it by now and it doesn’t bother her. “For me, it is a birthday like every other one. Other people are more preoccupied with it than I am.”
Tolkamp grew up in Aalten, a small town in the Achterhoek. No fewer than five other people from Aalten share her date of birth: 29-2-2000. They all went to the same secondary school. “What date do you celebrate your birthday?”, was the first thing she wanted to know from them. “Everyone does it differently. I myself, celebrate it on March 1, because ‘I wasn’t here yet on the 28th’, my mother always says. Others do do that. Actually strange, we were born on the same day, but have a different day of celebration.”
Facebook also has no clue what to do with the leap year birthday, Tolkamp laughs. “In ‘normal’ years I put my birthday as 1 March, because if I don’t do that, I receive birthday wishes on 28 February, while I only celebrate it with my family one day later. In a leap year, I change my birthday to 29 February, otherwise I get birthday wishes a day late.”
She is flexible this year. “I will only celebrate it on 5 or 6 March.” Tolkamp rows in the competition team for first-year students at Saurus and will be returning from a training camp in France on 28 February. “After that, I will most likely want to sleep, ha-ha.” In two years’ time, in 2024, she will be 24. She wants to have a big celebration. “On the 29th! I’m not bothered whether it is a weekday or not. It has to be on that day.” Her ‘real’ birthdays feel special, although it was never made out to be a big thing. “That would not have been fair to my younger brother and my sister. I do get the impression, though, that fewer people cancel in a leap year. They do their best to be there.”