Within my first
couple of weeks back on Yap, the not so momentous occasion of the 23rd
anniversary of my birth happened to pass by.
Now – as much as I adore/crave/am partially addicted to attention of
most varieties, there is something about the attention that comes with a
birthday that just doesn’t turn me into “Five-year-old, overly enthusiastic
about the smallest little thing Michael.”
I have always been this way – I am not sure how I am supposed to accept
compliments properly, and I do not know the proper response to seemingly
unwarranted birthday attention. I can
most easily compare my uneasiness to that feeling you get when you are suddenly
disproportionately aware of what your hands/arms are doing as you are speaking
to someone you are interested in (oh shoot – why are they just dangling there…
should I move this hand over my entire face and gently stroke my elbow as I do
so? Yeah – yeah – that’ll look
cool.) No worries though, world, this
hand/arm anxiety is now being completely overridden by the constant presence of
some form of cellular phone (are they even called phones anymore now that they
can do like… everything?) in your hand.
As a quick aside – no one truly cares what your arms/hands are doing, as
long as you are avoiding touching yourself and/or others in the select “no-no”
zones (I don’t want to get into specifics because depending on the culture you
are in – these “no-no” zones may differ/ there are plenty of friends of mine
where cuddling/spooning/ ear hugging is not only acceptable, but expected.)
Believe it
or not, I am trying incredibly to narrow my off shoots and tangents in these blog
posts, but I am clearly failing miserably.
I’ll keep working on it.
Anywho –
despite my lack of affinity for my own birthday – this birthday goes in the
record books (I actually have my own record books… if I am going to reference
them, then they better exist) as one of my favorites. The festivities began a week before my
birthday even hit as my Yapese family hosted a July birthday party for Dafrad,
Summer, Corinne (our neighbor across the way), and unbeknownst to me, me. All of our birthdays fall in the first half
of July so the extended family got together for ice cream, food, and fun. Oh – did I mention the cakes? (Yes – plural) And did I mention that when I went with
Tracie to pick them up in the morning, THAT is when I found out my name was on
a cake and I was included in the birthday celebrations. I couldn’t be more thankful to my amazing Yap
family.
As my
actual birthday approached, I got numerous letters, cards, and facebook
messages – all of which made me feel the love coming from the other side of the
Pacific. At school – the kids had a slew
of nunuws/ marmars waiting for me and Austin (one of our seniors who happens to
share the best date of birth.) (Yes – I know
proper grammar is Austin and me – but the parentheses in the middle of that
would have been confusing… as if this unnecessary aside is not confusing in
itself...) It was just an all-around
awesome day.
That
evening, the ex-pats threw a little surprise party for me on the Mnuw – which did
actually catch me slightly off guard.
Loren organized the little shindig, and she not only invited our ex-pat
group of friends, but also the priests – which made for a wonderful evening. Loren also informed me that my loving mother
was sending her pages upon pages of facebook messages detailing my birth and
childhood stories (you think I can talk…. Let me introduce you to Cathie Readdy
Wiencek – facebook friend her – she’ll love it.)
The true
highlight of my Yappy Birthday though was a collection of hand-made cards from
the Sophomore class at YCHS (my freshmen homeroom from last year.) I am not even an ounce ashamed or embarrassed
to say that I bawled my eyes out as I read through the heart felt letters from
my students. I could not have felt more
loved this birthday on Yap. Something
tells me 23 is going to be a good year.
-Morrie Schwartz
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