Last week there were birthdays for three of my favorite people, and I thought I’d share a short story about each of them.
Jay, my dad: My dad would have been 72 on Thursday were it not the cancer that took him a few years ago. Hopefully that isn’t the case for your father, but perhaps you can relate to the following. Are there any stories in your family that are told so many times that they’re a core part of your family tradition? My dad had this delightful story from his days playing high school football about a player named Bodine who didn’t actually exist (despite the coach thinking he did). My dad’s impression of the coach getting angrier and angrier about Bodine not answering to role call never ceased to make us–or him–laugh.
Trevor, my friend: Trev and I have been best friends since we were little kids, even though the only school we ever attended together was kindergarten. When I studied abroad in Kyoto my junior year, Trevor came to visit despite not knowing a word of Japanese. Near the end of the trip we were out with my girlfriend drinking sake at our favorite bar. She and I were mixing languages, though we were both more comfortable with Japanese, and all of a sudden Trevor tosses back the rest of the sake, slams it on the table, and says in perfect Japanese, “My name is Trevor!” I still laugh thinking about it.
Bryce, my friend: I met Bryce in high school, and he’s one of the few people from high school that I keep in touch with. He stopped by St. Louis just a few months ago on a cross-country drive, and Megan and I saw him just a few days ago in Virginia. In our junior year, I was really nervous about a class trip we took to a theme park called Busch Gardens, as I hadn’t ridden a roller coaster in years. But Bryce was a great sport about it and yelled as loud as possible–and encouraged me to do the same–every time to roller coaster began its plummet. It was hilarious and exhilerating, and the experience ended up being the topic of the college essay that got me into Wash U.
Do you have a story to share from a recent birthday for someone in your life?