Saturday, November 3, 2007

Birthdays

Friday was my 19th birthday. It was definately an interesting day. I woke up at about 6:30 am to go and see my Calculus professor. He has office hours from 7 am to 8 am when his class begins. I've begun to make a habit of doing this, because the homework he gives us is so hard. When I got to his office and began to work, it occured to me, "Wow, it's my birthday and I'm up incredibly early doing math". It felt strange at first, but then I felt good about it. "This is how I want to spend by birthday", I thought, "doing something meaningful". It made me feel accomplished.

In my chemistry class, there were a few people who said "Happy Birthday", and one of my friends even surprised me with a card and a small gift. After class I stopped at the post office to pick up a package and some cards that had been delivered. One was from a lady at my church back home who had gotten a small number of the congregation that I knew to sign a birthday card. This was very special to me. In another blog I wrote about how much my church back home means to me, and this card added to that feeling of being loved.

Birthdays are special days. They are days where people who hardly know you will shake your hand and wish you a happy birthday. They are days that unite people who are thousands of miles away from each other. They are opportunities to be creative, to show someone or many people your good side. It's even better if it is your birthday. For me, this was my first birthday away from home, away from one of my parents. I recieved some gifts, I was taken out to dinner, it was great. But with the gifts and the spirit of the day came the realization of how truly blessed I am. I thanked God for the family that raised me and made my birthday special, and I thanked Him for the friends without whom the day just wouldn't be as great. I realized that I should thank Him much more often. I realized that birthdays are days for being reminded of and thankful for all of God's gifts: our friends and our family. We remember just how special he made us and how valuable we really are to the world.

A strange thing happened around the same time I had my little epiphany. I was riding my long board cruiser back to my dorm with one of my packages that a friend from home had sent me. I was just about there when my board hit a seed that had fallen from one of the big trees in front of my dorm. The wheel immediatly stopped, I flew forward, and in doing so flung the skateboard backwards. A car just happened to be coming down the street, and it rolled right over my board. I was lucky that the deck didn't snap, but it chipped and both of my trucks were bent and useless. I couldn't believe this was happening on my birthday. This board was basically an early birthday present, my transportation, a two hundred dollar investment, laying battered and broken. I was angry, the car had just kept going, I wanted to chase it down and demand money from the driver. I had all these bad thoughts, "Why me?" type of thoughts, but none of them got me anywhere. I'm still amazed at what happened, I can't begin to think of why it happened, all I can do now is forget about it and try to fix my board when I can. I'll move on, and I'll walk away with only the great memories of my "infamous" 19th birthday.

God truly works in mysterious ways.

1 comment:

Paul Devitto said...

Happy Birthday!

I'm sorry about your board, but I'm glad you're alright. That's a blessing in itself.