Things have certainly changed a lot in the last 366 days (woo! leap year!). I'm older (obviously). I'm (a little bit) wiser. But on the whole, I'm doing tremendously better than I was a year ago.
The Lord has been teaching me so many amazing things. I've grown so much in the last couple of months. Plus, I've got a book in the works, a new blog up and running, a new blog in the pipeline (for a few months down the road), money is in the bank, my first legit apartment, and I'm acting again.
Birthdays to me are kind of funny.
I don't usually like to talk about my birthday. I don't usually write posts about my birthday or tell people, "Hey! My birthday is in X days!"
I'd much rather people just remember it on their own. It feels so much better to me when you get a card or a gift or a phone call simply because someone remembered instead of because you've been yelling in their ear for the last six weeks that your birthday is coming up soon.
Yes, I'm one of those weird kids that always wanted someone to throw a surprise party for me but never told anyone I wanted to have a surprise party because then I felt like someone would only throw a surprise party for me because I wanted them to throw a surprise party for me and not because they wanted to throw a surprise party for me.
But this year, I said, "To hell with it! I'm gonna talk about my birthday because it's my birthday and I can!" Plus, I'm 24, and 24 is kind of a boring birthday, if you really think about it.
I don't anticipate today being particularly memorable, but then again...you never know. In any event, today, we're going to talk about some of my more memorable birthdays. And appropriately we start with...
My first birthday. We were living in Honolulu, HI, which is where I was born because my dad is awesome and drove submarines (okay, he didn't really drive them, but he was a sub guy for the Navy for 26.5 years or thereabouts). As the story goes, we had this super awesome party planned at McDonald's and, being the almost-1-year-old-who-was-completely-aware-of-her-surroundings-and-mental-faculties that I was (shut up...it's my story), I was super excited for this party. But then my big sister got the chicken pox and thought it would be the best present ever to give said chicken pox to me. And we had to cancel my birthday party. And I was a not-so-happy-almost-1-year-old.
Fast forward to my ninth birthday. Approximately one month prior, we had moved down to St. Mary's, GA, which is a super tiny town right near the Florida/Georgia border (the St. Mary's river divides Florida/Georgia). There was a family we met who became quite good friends with our family. The mom and dad became great friends with my mom and dad and their daughter was the same age as my sister and they became great friends. They also had a boy my age. I did not like this boy, because this boy like me and he was an 8-year-old boy and 8-year-old boys tend to be far too irritating for their own good. Anyway, my birthday that year was on Super Bowl Sunday. The Strausbaughs invited us over for Super Bowl Sunday and my parents said yes, not really paying attention to the fact that it was my birthday. I found out a couple of days before and was furious. I couldn't believe that my parents were going to make me spend my birthday with Brad. I'm pretty sure I pouted for about 90% of the night (what can I say? I was a dramatic kid).
Skip ahead another eight years to my seventeenth birthday. I was in Thailand with The Potter's School, an school I took classes with in high school, on a 10-day missions trip. I was really excited about the trip, but I was also a bit sad, because it meant that I would be spending my very first birthday away from from my family. I sort of assumed that when we got back to the States we'd celebrate my birthday a few days delayed and that would be it. The morning of my birthday, I received a few gifts from the other members of my team who had snuck out to the night market the previous day and picked up a couple of things that I really wanted. The afternoon of my birthday, we were having a team meeting and Mrs. Gilbert began discussing something a bit off topic. She started talking to me and about how much my parents loved me and how they knew it was a big deal that I wasn't going to be with them for my birthday. They wanted to make sure I knew just how much they loved me and how special I was to them even though I was halfway across the world. She then gave me a beautiful bracelet that I really wanted that my parents had made sure she got before we left for Thailand.
My twentieth birthday was my first birthday in college. I'm not really a super huge party person. I much prefer to have small gatherings with a few of my close friends than a huge blowout with a gajillion people. On this particular birthday, the producer for a summer theater program I'd been a part of for the last two summers happened to be in town as his alma mater is William & Mary, which is just up the road from CNU. He took myself and Matt (also part of STP) out to dinner at Outback for a lovely, quiet evening. After we got back, I proceeded to part ways with Matt. I told him that I was going to stop by the DSU to check my mail and I'd see him later. He told me that he was coming with me. I thought this was a little odd and assumed that the rest of the family must have something up their sleeve. We got back to my suite and I opened the door, fully preparing myself for lots of people to jump out at me with balloons and streamers. That didn't happen. So I opened up my bedroom door, once again preparing myself for lots of people to jump out at me with balloons and streamers. But that still didn't happen. I looked quizzically at Matt and proceeded to take off my coat, when all of a sudden...everyone jumped out of my wardrobe with balloons and streams. For reference...this is how our room was set up that year...
It was a wonderful surprise and a lovely birthday and I enjoyed every minute of it.For my twenty-fourth birthday, I will spend a good part of the day hanging out with my wonderful big sister. Around 7:00pm, I will go to the theatre and get all dolled up for opening night of my show. Hopefully, the show will go splendidly. After we finish, I will go to a dueling pianos bar with my big sister and my roomie where we will start by celebrating my birthday and then continue by celebrating my roomie's birthday after midnight. And I think it will be quite lovely.
What is your most memorable birthday?
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The post Birthday Memories first appeared on Shades of Shayes.
