July 14, 2014

Had a tremendous, magical, surreal 20th birthday. It all happened perfectly all in the right time. It's as if I was following an imaginary schedule.

The first half of my day was spent in boredom, at jury duty. I felt like the youngest person there. At one point I felt as if I was a passenger in a long haul flight. At another I felt as if I was being manipulated like in 1984 after watching the trial introduction video on the two television monitors that were hanged on the corner. And, at another point I felt like I was in the Hunger Games when they called out the names.

I could say it again. It's a really boring place to be. I finished reading a Chandler book and roaming around the internet. Jurors were reading the newspaper and or a book. A few were just blankly staring into space, and some were even sleeping.

A couple hours passed and before I knew it I was set free.

Then I happened to bump into my friend, who also had jury duty at the time. He was on break while I was free.
"You're so lucky," he said. "Let's meet now. I got some time to kill."
Whereupon we met and had some Subway sandwiches for a quick lunch. We talked about how to not get selected as the twelve jurors, and how there should be six rounds in taekwondo sparring rather than three. He didn't know that it was my birthday and I didn't feel the need to tell him.
"I'm good with three," I said.
"But think about how much more exciting it would be if there were six."


Then he went back to his jury duty and then I finally was able to meet B. I walked with her to the bakery where she picked up a cake. The weather was scorching hot and humid that we couldn't even hold hands.

"I want a tattoo of the sun and the yin-yang," she said.
I nodded.
"The sun has so many meanings. I want to shine and provide joy and brightness to others, just like the sun," she said. "And the yin-yang is important because it shows balance."
I nodded. "That's nice." It was truly a wonderful reason.

I didn't know what to expect when she told me to not enter. It took a while. I went to the bathroom, took a few swinging practices with the plastic baseball bat, and stared out the window. A while later she called me in. And then immediately I began to see about thirty bright candles scattered on the floor of my room. When I looked closely they were formed in the shape of a heart. She was there, holding her phone recording the moment where I was awestruck and touched and surprised in every sense of the word. She was also holding the cake with the two candles. She began to sing happy birthday.

"Wow," I held my hand against my heart. It was a really surreal moment, like I was dreaming.

Inevitably a tear streamed down my eye. I've celebrated my birthday throughout the years but nothing as grand as this.

We then blew out the candles in the heart shape and she showed me a video that she created. It was a video of friends from college wishing me a happy birthday, one by one. She made me realize that I wasn't always alone, and even if I was, those people would be there. It was touching and beautiful. The video that she created re-connected me to those people and gave me the opportunity to tie a closer bond with them. It's truly amazing.

Then she gave me two cards, one for our 9 months, and the other for my birthday. The words were spectacular and made me shed another tear. While wiping it off, she brought me the birthday gift, which was a miniature baseball bat with our names and a message engraved on it. I was extremely happy and touched. Thank you so much B.

In the evening my mom and I celebrated with some lobster and paella. It was great and filled my stomach up good.


But then again all of these things I've done today I've never done or experienced in my life before. From jury duty to Bs gifts and tremendous surprise. I have turned 20, and have attained the melancholy brilliance of the moon, as Fitzgerald suggests, and it was a wonderful one. Thank you alll!!