Whatmomslove.com

Elections and the Summer Olympics always land on a Leap Year.

“Leaplings” are people who are born on the 29th of February. Due to the Leap Year, this date only occurs every 4 years. This special day of the year is the birthday of only 4 Olympia High School students. That’s roughly 0.2% of the student body.

Leap Day is due to Earth’s orbit. One orbit isn’t exactly 365 days, but 365.25 days. This offset of almost 6 hours every year is compiled into one extra day in February every four years. All of OHS’ leap babies will be celebrating their fourth official birthday this year with the past leap years occurring in 2020, 2016, 2012, and 2008.

As an OHS “leapling,” Audrey Leneker commented on the abnormality of such a rare birthday. “I’ve had a lot of friends who’ve not believed me.” She continued, “They’ve had to go ask my mom to see if I’m being serious.” 

“Sometimes, when I have to select birthdays when registering for some things, I cannot select February 29 because they think it’s an invalid date,” said leapling Steve Su. Such a rare birthday is frequently left out of morning announcements and forgotten in other registrations. 

Leneker agreed, stating: “On a lot of applications I just select the 28th,” as that’s when she tends to celebrate her birthday. Su does the premature celebration as well. Contrarily, leapling Max Park-Desmond chooses to celebrate his birthday on the 1st of March to simulate the same amount of time between each year’s birthdays. 

Having a rare birthday just makes these students that much more unique. Make sure to wish every leapling you know a very special birthday in 2024!