Five-year-olds are all over UF’s campus today, but they’re hard to recognize.
They’re not wearing light-up sneakers or fighting over Legos — they’re in lecture halls taking midterms.
That’s because these 5-year-olds are celebrating their chronological 20th birthdays. They’re leaplings: people who were born on Feb. 29.
Finance sophomore Vijay Patel usually celebrates his birthday on Feb. 28 or March 1 — whichever day is closer to the weekend.
Every four years, he gets a true birthday.
“Psychologically, it’s different from everybody else,” Patel said. “Every other birthday is just like every other day to me.”
But he said he’s excited when Feb. 29 comes around.
Patel realized his birthday was different when he turned 12. A teacher mentioned the oddity, and he looked up what it meant.
“Unique is the only word to describe it,” Patel said.
Today is electrical engineering sophomore Adam Rozenberg’s birthday, too.
He said his birthday isn’t a big deal, but he’ll celebrate with friends, board games and Nintendo 64.
“When I was little, it used to bother me because I always wanted to be older,” Rozenberg said. “Now it’s like whatever.”
But being a leapling isn’t always easy.
In 2010, he tried to buy a lighter on Feb. 28, and the store clerk didn’t think he was 18 since his birthday wasn’t technically for another day.
Some of Rozenberg’s friends forget his birthday because it’s not a specific day each year.
Both leaplings said they like being different. Rozenberg said his rare birthday can’t take all the credit, though.
“I mean, I’m cool for other reasons,” he joked.
Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.
