The Ghost of Birthday's Past

The only problem with September birthdays is that it is right at the beginning of the school year, so I generally celebrate with people I hardly know. They pretend they care. I pretend to be thrilled about the birthday pencil from my teacher. I can't expect her to be all attached to me on the first week of school.

However, when I was 17, my best friend, Kristi, threw me a surprise birthday party. I did not see it coming AT ALL. That was points for her because, I really didn't expect a surprise party would ever be lost on me.

When I turned 18 I was a new freshman in college. I went out to breakfast in my PJ's with the other 12 girls on the floor who also had September birthdays. In the picture I have from this event, I am walking down the dorm hall with a t-shirt, boxer shorts, and a finger sticking out. I couldn't bend my finger because I'd jammed it trying to disparately to stop a zip line before I slammed into a tree. I hardly knew anyone, but it was fun to be a freshman.

19 - Living with friends in Provo. My roommates made me a cake and we celebrated. I still own the sweater I was wearing in the pictures from that day.

20 - Roommates pretended they didn't remember it was my birthday so nothing was said until really late...it was funny, but I wasn't hurt that no one remembered. I used to have great fears I'd get married really young. I felt a huge sense of relief that I would never be a teen bride. Broke my leg the day after and spent the next month on crutches. (What can I say, September 11th is not exactly my lucky day.) My friend Shaun took me to the mountains for dinner a little later (crutches and all). He made a birthday wish for me that my life-long dream of traveling abroad would come true. Somehow I knew that his wish would come true. He just seemed to me to be one of those people who always got what he wished for.

21 - I was on my study abroad in Paris. Again, still getting acquainted with people. The whole group went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris. They shut off all the lights in the restaurant. The waiters had sparklers and they set a cake with sparklers in front of me and the entire restaurant sang while the waiters pounded the counters. It was incredible. I spent the evening going to the Eiffel Tower...It was amazing.

22 - It was a Sunday in Nice, France. I had been told a day or so before that I was getting transfered after 7 months in my first mission area. Cecile and Martine had been baptized in that time. I was worried for them. The ward had a tendency to be harsh. In my parting testimony to the ward, all I could think to say was...if you loved me, love them. So much of what I cared about was wrapped up in them. Left the area realizing why, when you love others you love God...because he loves them so much.

23 - My birthday was on a Monday, the day before THE September 11th; my last semester at BYU. I celebrated with my Family Home Evening group. It was fun, but a little too fun. It put me furiously behind on homework. When THE September 11th hit, I spent the ENTIRE day off from start to finish catching up on being only one day behind. It was a rough semester.

24 - I was living in Salt Lake with my mission trainer and 4 other amazing women. Had my old roommate Leslie, my brother Vince, and Jenni & Danny come up from Provo for my birthday. My Mexican neighbors came over...it was great.

25 - Had my birthday celebration at my soon-to-be roommate Jessie's apartment. Aaron, Chad, Jessie, Michele and other friend's were there. Chad and Aaron sent me tons of helium balloons at work because the ridiculousness of the vision of me toting all of these balloons to my car was enough to keep them laughing for weeks. I left the balloons at my desk.

26 - My boyfriend and I used to plan dates on our lunch breaks each Thursday alternatively. It was his week to plan. He sent me a Gerber daisy at work that morning with a note indicating the location of where I should meet him. I met him by the fountain at the city library where he presented me with a shoe box wrapped in gift paper. The shoe box contained our lunch, a sandwich, bananas etc. which were wrapped individually. We took a tour of the library gardens. I thought that was it, but later that night he presented me with the real present. He was a writer, and he'd written a fictional story where I was the main character (and a pirate.) It was so funny, laced with French words he'd subtly asked me about in the weeks preceding my birthday. I came across it again the other day...man, I loved his creativity.

27 - Turned 27 my first year of law school. I had just moved to St. Louis. The Lindell YSA group took a trip to Columbia, Missouri for a conference. I got a birthday card written in French from some anonymous person. I spent all day trying to figure out who gave it to me. Spent much the day cleaning chairs in a nursery school for a service project with Ben A. and Cindy. The YSA group all signed a cute little birthday card. Pretty nice considering they still hardly knew me.

28 - Amy officially took over my birthday planning. A group of us went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Brien got me a book of farm animals...David gave me a Boeing paper weight with the world in it. Mark gave me a movie card. Liza and Adam were dating.

29 - Karen put huge letters on the kitchen wall spelling Happy Birthday. I thought that was really nice of her considering we had only been roommates for a few days. Amy's magic planning again. We went on a boat ride on the Mississippi, then ate dinner with law school and church friends in a restaurant in downtown St. Louis.

30 - History here has yet to be written. I know mom will call. I'll go out to dinner with a few thoughtful friends. Katie will make blueberry pie. Either way, I'll be 30 and excited to welcome in a new decade.

All in all, perhaps September birthdays aren't so bad after all.