19: Museum of tolerance in California
20:Unknown, no tradition yet
21: Two upper wisdom teeth extraction
22: Gallbladder removal
23: A belated birthday dinner with a special young man
24: Unknown- I didn't know that I had a tradition yet
25: Weekend away in Chicago
26: listening to a lecture by a former Neo-Nazi
27: Bumper cars
28: Failed attempt at going to the gun range, bowling instead
29: Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI)
30: Helicopter tour of Seattle the day that I was offered a job across the country and subsequent move.
31: Visiting the zoo, surprise birthday party with a select group of gals, first solo trip to NYC and a trip to Boston.
To say that many of these celebratory events have been indicative of where I was in that point of my life is an interesting and all too real notation. Not only that, but many of these events have marked significant growing experiences for me. I wish to review several of these and share where I was at that time and/or how it has shaped me into who I am now.
20: I didn't know it then, but visiting the Museum of Tolerance museum would have a profound impact on me into adulthood. I find myself more and more curious about history, and not the King Tut variety, but the U.S. history and subsequently what is happening around the world. It has made me thrive to learn what I can through first person accounts of life is like for minorities and particularly women around the world and really in our own back yard.
21: As a young woman of the LDS (colloquially known as Mormon) faith, I was at the magical age of 21, and having chosen to serve a mission I was taking care of some necessary medical things, one of which was the unfortunate extraction of my upper two wisdom teeth. I wasn't very happy about, and may have told my dentist that I did not like him very much in that moment. I was fortunate at that time in my life to have a job that gave me health insurance and the ability to pay for my own medical care. I had those extracted and I was on my way to getting my call to serve in the Illinois Chicago North Mission, which arrived the Monday following Thanksgiving.
22: I was blessed to serve under two mission presidents: one I loved, the other adored. It was under the second that I found myself ill at 3am on a Wednesday morning in late September. We tried many remedies and after a visit to the doctor and an ultra-sound it was determined that the cause of my troubles came from my gallbladder, necessitating removal. I was sent home to California to have my surgery, recover and return. It is not as thou I tried to have each of these surgeries on birthdays, it just happened to be when they were available. I was able to fly home, have my surgery and return to full time missionary service in Chicago in less than one month. It was a hard month, and one full of reflection, but not one that looking back now I would trade. I was given a rare opportunity to literally look at how I was serving God and what I was giving of myself 9 months into the prescribed 18 months.
25: Three years after returning to California and ending my full time missionary service I was at school in Logan, Utah attending Utah State University (Go Aggies). The school gave us a long weekend that fell immediately following my birthday. I felt that this necessitated a get away weekend. I was in touch with a very special woman in my life, who I taught as a missionary. She told me to get out to Chicago and I could stay with her and her family, whom I had grown to love. It was a wonderful weekend, a time of reflection and a time to see where I was in my life.
26: Remember when I noted that the events of my 19th birthday had a profound impact on my life as an adult? Here is another example of that. While at Utah State University I was fortunate to be able to hear a lecturer on campus who was a former Neo-Nazi and, in fact had provided the Museum of Tolerance in California with much of the information that they had on that population. What a thing to be able to see!
30: I had just graduated with my Masters degree from Western Washington University a month prior and wanted to do something to really celebrate. It was decided that a helicopter tour of Seattle, my home for the previous three years, was the perfect thing to do in celebration. Who would have known when I made the reservations that the morning of our flight I would get news that would change my life forever. It was that morning, while my sister was at work that I got a call offering me a job that I had interviewed for and accepted it. This job was to take me clear across the country to Philadelphia and this was to be the last great excursion for the two of us as sisters. I moved just four short weeks later, just days after she returned from a trip of a lifetime to Nepal. I had as smooth of a transition as one could have when moving clear across the country. I wound up with amazing roommates, a great church community, and good solid supportive co-workers. What more could a girl ask for?
31: Am I really 31 now? The last year has been full of all sorts of traveling, growing, stretching to when I thought I might break and yet haven't. In the last year I have moved across the country, gained some amazing friends, got involved with tutoring 11-13 year old young men. They make me smile, they make me laugh, and sometime I even cry for them. I knew when I moved out here that this is where I needed to be and I have embraced it! The one thing that I had not done yet was a solo trip to NYC, which I was finally able to do today, on this, my 31st birthday. This trip was, for me, a show of independence. A show of my ability to venture out without someone next to me holding my hand. I was talking with a roommate recently about the fact that I love that I can pick up and move across the country and assimilate well into my new surroundings. I think that my roommates might have my head if I were to lack mentioning my very first surprise birthday party that they were able to pull off for me. It was perfect, and so me. Just a few (8) special guests and a round of chatting with each other. In a few short day I will round out my birthday celebrations by spending a few days in Boston at a Young Single Adult conference and an extra almost two days playing tourist.
I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the many birthdays prior to those mentioned. For 10 years I was entrenched in the Native American community and culture,of which I still hold very dear. Each year on the first weekend on October we attended, and I competed in the Chukchansi Pow-Wow in Coarsegold, California. I do not remember specific ages of events but I do remember events none the less. It is there that I had my coming out ceremony. As in many cultures it is a special time for a young person. This is the time that they are introduced to the community as a full dancer. It is a time of celebration of not only the dancer, but all those who have assisted them in getting to the place that they are. The Arena Director (aka, the head dude in charge) JR Manuel (are you impressed that I still remember his name? I am) directed me to dance solo once around the arena and the my family and others joined behind me after I had made my first round. I was so scared. At the end of this I was now able to be accepted into any arena in the United States and Canada as a full dancer. It was also that year that I was gifted two baby owl wings by a family friend, Cherokee. In the tradition of at least one of my tribes it is.In the tradition of at least on of my tribes it is viewed as a messenger I'd good things, however, in many tribes, and certainly those that in was dancing with it is seen as a messenger of death, there for in all my years of dancing I was never able to use them. Another year I met a wonderful young woman and her grandmother who knew an Iroquois when they saw one. They took me under their wing that weekend and taught me a few traditions from my tribe. I still hole these memories close. Although I am no longer entrenched in the community, I still remember the growth that I went through over the course of those 10 years.
Here is to a great 31. Cheers!
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