4-year-old sophomore attends Rusk High School
Leap year babies discuss birthday humor
BY DANIELLE GOODWIN

Rusk High School sophomore Lauren Ortega celebrates her birthday on her birthday for only the fourth time Friday, as her birthday only comes once every four years. Lauren is actually 16 years old.

A four-year old sophomore attends Rusk High School. Lauren Ortega will be celebrating her fourth birthday this year, although she has been living for more than sixteen years.

This is possible because Lauren was born on February 29, the extra day added to each leap year.

Leap years occur because the Earth takes 365.242 days to revolve around the sun. The history of the leap year goes back to the time of Julius Ceasar at approximately 45 B.C. During this time, the calendar had only 335 days, and every two years, a 22 or 23-day month was created to keep the seasons occurring at the same time of year.

To help simplify things, Ceasar had his astronomer, Sosigenes, develop the 365 day calendar. Then, the fraction of a day would be made up every fourth year, on Feb. 29.

Lauren is not the only leap-year baby in Cherokee County. Nelta Moake and Shelta Ethridge, leap-year twins, will technically be celebrating their sixteenth birthday this year.

So, how do leap-year babies deal with the set-backs of only having a birthday every four years? Both Lauren and Nelta celebrate their birthdays every year on Feb. 28.

"My sister and I always get teased, because we could have two birthdays, one on Feb. 28 and one on March 1," said Nelta.

Lauren feels that only having her real birthday every four years is quite disappointing.

"I feel younger than everyone else," she said. She is constantly taunted by her younger siblings, who claim to be older than she.

Although Lauren was born on the extra day of leap year, she is legally sixteen years old and therefore will be able to get her driver's license this fall.

This year may be just another year for the rest of us, but for Lauren, Shelta and Nelta, it will be one of the few years that their birthday actually comes.