Everybody thinks their birthday is special. After all, it only comes around once a year. Unless you are a “leaper” of course. A “leaper” is anyone lucky or unlucky enough to be born on Feb. 29, which comes around once every four years.
Kate Briscoe is a leaper and although she can legally drive a car, vote in an election and buy beer at a bar, this is her sixth birthday.
“I think it’s unique how not many people have the same birthday as me,” said Briscoe, who is a schoolteacher in Kansas City. “That’s always a fun conversation to have with people. I love having a leap-year birthday. I would never want to change my birthday, and it’s always a memorable birthday when it’s your actual birthday.”
For the record, Briscoe was born on Feb. 29, 2000.
“Her original due date was March 11, and I was aware of it being a leap year,” said Michele Gordon Briscoe, Kate’s mother. “We had a lot happening at the time, including a flooded basement. I was saying I was sure she’d be a leap-year baby because our luck had not been the best at the time. Sure enough, she was a leap year baby, so now it’s one of the luckiest days of my life.”
Briscoe, who grew up attending Congregation Temple Israel and United Hebrew, says she’s often asked when she celebrates her birthday, and what date appears on her driver’s license.
“It is actually Feb. 29, and there’s a funny story about that,” said Briscoe. “On my 16th birthday, I went to get my driver’s license. I took my test, I passed, and then I was waiting for them to give me my license.”
Briscoe waited a while because the state of Missouri’s computer system did not have Feb. 29 in its system.
“They couldn’t print the paper copy because it wasn’t coming up in the system as a date. So finally, they ended up printing off a copy with my birthday as the 28th. And then when we got our real copies, it said the 29th,” Briscoe added.
As a teacher, Briscoe says she’s had fun explaining to her first graders that they are all “older” than her.
“Yes, it’s my sixth birthday. My students have a very hard time understanding this. They know my birthday is on Thursday, but they don’t understand that I only have a birthday every four years, so it’s been a fun learning experience,” said Briscoe.”
