I make no secret of the fact that I despise my birthday. Don’t worry, I’m not about to go on a mini-rant like some emo kid and quote Good Charlotte lyrics. It’s just that having all of that attention focused directly on me results in me focusing a lot of attention on me and where I am in my life. For someone who already has an over-analytical personality, this is a dangerous thing. It wasn’t until three years ago that I started to realize that I didn’t need to celebrate my birthday in the traditional sense, filled with some big social gathering and activities I didn’t really enjoy. For that birthday, I conned Siobhan into driving to Portland with me on a weekday to watch as obscure of a college basketball game as humanly possible; Montana State versus Portland State in a gymnasium smaller than most high schools. The game was horrible (MSU lost by 20), there was probably only 200 people there, we were constantly getting dirty looks as we obnoxiously cheered for Montana State (Gooooooooooooo BOBCATS!) when the rest of the gym was silent and we didn’t get back until like 2 a.m., but it was an absolutely fantastic day.
Last year, Lindsey, faced with the undesirable responsibility of being the girlfriend of someone who openly declared very few things would make him happy on his birthday, demonstrated a level of ridiculous clutchness (that almost approaches the ‘Tacoooooo’ moment) when she somehow came up with tickets to a Gonzaga basketball game in Spokane. Despite the fact that we almost died driving through ‘The Pass’ and GU eventually lost in overtime, it was a ridiculously fantastic day.
Well, fast forward to last night; my 26th birthday. Sticking to my plan of telling as few people as possible, I was able to avoid the ‘surprise party’ that seems to be thrown for everyone. I had a real low key night hanging out with a few friends and having cornbread as my birthday cake. My goal was to make it home before midnight to catch an obscure college basketball game between Butler versus Drake. Outside of the NCAA tournament, this game was going to be the only game between two smaller schools shown on the international ESPN channel here in Zambia. It would also help maintain my college basketball –themed awesome birthday streak.
Just like previous years, the birthday ended up being even better than I anticipated. Because it was running long, I was actually able to catch the final minute of the Oral Roberts versus Creighton game. I won’t really go into the story behind it, but Oral Roberts University just happens to be one of my favorite teams and they are almost never on television. Of course, Creighton hit a dagger 3 with 15 seconds left and ORU missed their final shot.
Last year, Lindsey, faced with the undesirable responsibility of being the girlfriend of someone who openly declared very few things would make him happy on his birthday, demonstrated a level of ridiculous clutchness (that almost approaches the ‘Tacoooooo’ moment) when she somehow came up with tickets to a Gonzaga basketball game in Spokane. Despite the fact that we almost died driving through ‘The Pass’ and GU eventually lost in overtime, it was a ridiculously fantastic day.
Well, fast forward to last night; my 26th birthday. Sticking to my plan of telling as few people as possible, I was able to avoid the ‘surprise party’ that seems to be thrown for everyone. I had a real low key night hanging out with a few friends and having cornbread as my birthday cake. My goal was to make it home before midnight to catch an obscure college basketball game between Butler versus Drake. Outside of the NCAA tournament, this game was going to be the only game between two smaller schools shown on the international ESPN channel here in Zambia. It would also help maintain my college basketball –themed awesome birthday streak.
Just like previous years, the birthday ended up being even better than I anticipated. Because it was running long, I was actually able to catch the final minute of the Oral Roberts versus Creighton game. I won’t really go into the story behind it, but Oral Roberts University just happens to be one of my favorite teams and they are almost never on television. Of course, Creighton hit a dagger 3 with 15 seconds left and ORU missed their final shot.
Creighton 65 ORU 64
I’m not going to lie. The ending to the game was extremely lame. In a way, though, it didn’t matter to me. It was a perfect example of what life is like here in Zambia. Anyone who tries to tell you that life in Zambia is better than life in the States is either being a poser or is an idiot. Life in America is pretty sweet. You have access to anything you could possibly want or need. The advantage of living in Zambia, though, is you finally start to gain an appreciation for everything that you used to take for granted. There I was, at 12:15 a.m., watching 60 seconds of basketball and I couldn’t have been more happy. I ultimately didn’t even care that they lost because I was so excited for the opportunity to actually see them play. Instead of being disappointed when impossible expectations are not met, you still should appreciate the aspects of your life that do go your way. Okay, that’s the end of my Grey’s Anatomy-like closing paragraph.
Go Zags!!!!
I’m not going to lie. The ending to the game was extremely lame. In a way, though, it didn’t matter to me. It was a perfect example of what life is like here in Zambia. Anyone who tries to tell you that life in Zambia is better than life in the States is either being a poser or is an idiot. Life in America is pretty sweet. You have access to anything you could possibly want or need. The advantage of living in Zambia, though, is you finally start to gain an appreciation for everything that you used to take for granted. There I was, at 12:15 a.m., watching 60 seconds of basketball and I couldn’t have been more happy. I ultimately didn’t even care that they lost because I was so excited for the opportunity to actually see them play. Instead of being disappointed when impossible expectations are not met, you still should appreciate the aspects of your life that do go your way. Okay, that’s the end of my Grey’s Anatomy-like closing paragraph.
Go Zags!!!!
1 comment:
I'd like to make a note. We would not have almost died going through the Pass had Mark listened to me in the first place. But no, no Mr. I-don't-want-to-drive-the-Pass-when-
it's-dark-and-rainy didn't listen to me, and guess what, we drove the pass when it was dark and rainy.
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