Anna Grace Askelson

On April 4, I turned 19! I had been looking forward to my birthday party for a while, and I was making elaborate plans as early as February. I wanted to try something new, like going roller skating or hosting a murder mystery party or just default to old faithful – a board game night with pizza.   When April came around, it was clear that none of these plans could happen under quarantine. But I, a diehard extrovert, wasn’t ready to give up that easily.   So I turned to a virtual party! This came with its highs and lows in the various stages of party planning, but for the most part it turned out well.   I organized my friends through a group text on my Android phone. I would recommend using a different app if you have Android, because through the texting app I couldn’t add or remove people after initially creating the group or insert something like a poll, which would have been really helpful.  Décor was easy for me, as I had saved my party decorations from last year. All I had to do was string them up in the background of where I was sitting for the call, and voila, instant festivity. If you don’t want to put the effort in, or you don’t have décor on hand, you can consider using a birthday-themed background on Zoom. One of my friends...