I wake in my own room.
My birthday morning's in bloom.
Its early and I'm alone.
Arie's not home today.
I have no plans for today.
My ukelele might play
Me A Cheering-Up song
I pick it up and tune.
"Over the Rainbow"
"What a Wonderful World"
IZ knows how to mash-up.
Skype my family, here's what I sing!
Hey! Happy Birthday!
To ya, Mommy!
We share this birthday.
And I learned to play
This ukelele.
D'wanna hear me?
It might rough, but...
I'll play it gaily.
(repeat)
We took our time with the call.
I played for you, knowing all
th-while, you're going to be
in Brookings for your day.
We hung up feeling the bliss
Of sharing today's sweet kiss.
Now what to do now that's done.
My phone begins to say,
Your friend is callin'.
Coley G is fallin'
Into your lap as the-
BEST PHONE CALL THAT MADE MY BIRTHDAY!
Hey! Its my birthday!
And I'm 20.
This day is flying,
with people caring!
Phone calls and texts come,
By the buckets.
Turn off my Facebook's
Notifications.
Hey! It's 10:30.
I get a phone call.
From my friend, Arie.
She says there's a scroll,
Listing my needs today,
A riddle to find,
Some disguised person
Within the hour!
A deadline comes at me so fast,
I need to shower!
Shower so bad.
Shower so so bad!
A deadline comes at me so fast,
So I will shower,
Shower so fast.
Shower so fast!
Hey! Its my birthday.
Now its midnight.
I've been out all day,
Without a foresight
Of the adventures,
Waiting for me.
13 hours later,
It's time for some sleep!
Disguises, puzzles,
Google Translate!
Lunch with two girlfriends,
and Hans the driver,
Trees and tree spirits
Camera with clues,
Dress up and photos at the Rose Garden!
Chris Georges taking
lots of pictures!
Feet washed and writing
To God at Prayer Wall.
And serenaded
By Sean Gabel
All with blindfold
To play some board games.
[END SONG]
Okay! So I ran out of song, and after singing through it, I didn't really get it all rhythmically right... But! The birthday celebrations continue. Daniel, Sean, Arie, and I all play Quelf until 5:23pm, where Sean then stands up and sings his "its 5:23, time to pack up for the next thing" song. And we leave the Duke hallway and go back to the apartment to get ready for dinner at.... Old Spaghetti Factory. Later, I was told that Daniel and Arie both loved OSF so that was the dinner plan regardless of how I felt about it (I love my friends). Arie and I half-slept through out "get ready time," pulled on whatever looked nice at the time, and went to dinner, where we met J-Lord, Justin Dent, and Ethan. We all ordered and I did not pay for a cent of my garlic shrimp fettucini and raspberry italian soda. Coming later and hopelessly lost along the way came Josh Ryan and Kyle Hobkirk, on the "divine wind" which blew them past their mark and then back-tracked to the right location. We ate and retold the tale of my journey thus far, and all of it was hilarious because it went so perfectly, all the pieces coming together.
One of my friends even played the part of "that person who gets a bit of information about the surprise, thinks these plans are about her and tells me what she knows a few days before my birthday, so she gets cut off from the party plan and is hopelessly confused throughout the day, thinking its still about her until plans unfold and become too obviously about my birthday, so she relaxes and has a good time, though is still overall confused about what is going on until her part is over and she goes back to work."
We sang in the restaurant and my friends sang Happy Birthday to me in such a melodious polyphony that if someone hadn't seen us together prior to dinner, one might have thought a chamber choir was hired to sing for me. Then, Arie and I surprised Daniel with dessert plans at Joanna's by talking to our chair, much like how the tree spirit earlier in the day sat in and spoke to the tree, then we relayed that the tree had a haiku to tell Daniel, but first he must be a human boomerang, spin in circles around the room while saying Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah before we disclose this information:
Put that ice cream down! --5
Sweet treats await us elsewhere. --7
Drive to Joanna's... :) --5
So we drive to Joanna's, where waiting for us are two desserts: Fresh Bumbleberry Pie & Molten Hot Brownies, both ALA MODE!
They needed to cool, so we all played the piano and sang random songs together and talked until we could dig in.
Full and satisfied, sitting on the couches and reminiscing about this perfect birthday plan, perfectly executed, Daniel suddenly says, "Nowww, lets go around and say something we like about Katherine." What? I was not expecting this. Riddles, Daniel in three different Disguises/Personas, Puzzles, Lunch with Joanna and Jess, Imagination with the tree whisperer and George the Tree who gave me a camera with an abstract picture of the Rose Garden, Dress-Up photo shoots, A Ride in the Campus Safety Vehicle, Foot-Washing and Letter-Writing to God, Prayer, Singing in Public, Story-telling, Dessert, Songs with Friends, now THIS?! My mindset throughout this day had been something along the lines of, "Wow, this cannot get any better," and now I was about to receive personalized compliments from each of my dearest friends. I'll try to summarize what they said (sorry if I get some things mixed up. I'm flying by the seat of my pants.)
Ethan: You have such a joyful heart and spirit. You always live out your faith and own the fact that you are "a daughter of Eve" (reference to what the mysterious tree whisperer said earlier) in everything you do and say. You have such a passion for knowing God and following him in every area of your life.
J-Lord: There are a lot of happy and positive people in this world. However, the reason so many of them seem to be happy is because they ignore the dark. There are so many harsh realities in life they just haven't experienced yet, so many truths they haven't come to grips with, so many dark things in themselves they have yet to face.
So often, when people face these things, they let it change them. They become hopeless and down-trodden from the weight of these realizations. They look at the happy people who have yet to go through these things and they wonder how they ever once felt that blissful.
But neither of these stereotypes defines you. Unlike the former, you have experienced so much life and so many dark things, more than I even know about. But unlike the latter, you haven't let it change you. You still have all the hope, all the wonder, all the amazing light that you always have. if anything, it burns brighter now, with the strength and determination you've gained from facing the darkness and knowing what's on the other side. Your life, your hope, your smile…all stand as a testament to the power of choosing joy in all situations.
Justin: You are a great story-teller. I haven't known you for very long. Uhhh...I think you're funny.
Josh Ryan: I love how you approach life without fear. You have such a great work ethic, and no matter what is going on... you always bring it. So I really admire that. And, you are so encouraging and make people feel good about themselves even if they didn't feel good about themselves before. You have so much grace with people.
Sean: I love that you always live to find the meaning in things. You live your life with so much joy, but in that joy, you search for its meaning and live life so intentionally for God and for others. You put so much life into everything you do.
Joanna: I love how much passion you have for life. So often, people lose passion for the things they love, but you find passion wherever you are. I love how much you care for others, and how much you love people. You have a zest for walking with God joyfully, and in that spreading joy to those around you.
Ethan: May I interject as well? Your spirit is infectious. This lively ball of energy that cheers up anyone's day. Just by being around, you lift others up and they leave lighter than before.
Kyle: So, I know I haven't known you for very long. But from what I do know of you, with Insanity and just hanging out, you have a way of making people feel worthwhile. Even if they are down on themselves, you find a way to see the good in everything and light up the good parts out of the bad. You bring people up to this standard of excellence that they might not have previously thought they could reach, but you bring them there with your encouragement by building up the good in them. Its a quality I highly admire in you and I am so glad we are friends.
J-Lord: I was just reminded of this:
Philemon 1:4-7 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.[a] 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
Daniel: Well, I'm gonna try not go all pastoral on you, so here it goes. I've watched you grow for some time now, and from what I've gathered, you are always searching for the will of God. Two verses come to mind:
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Corinthians 3:10-14 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.
You have this wonderful spirit that takes in information and spits out wisdom and discernment. You always seek the truth in every situation.
You never, in my experience knowing you, have ever intentionally chosen what you knew was wrong for you. You're always seeking for God's hand in every part of your life.
You have this curiosity for learning that is so admirable, and will take you far. I've told you this before, but I'm confident that you could do whatever you want, because you have the passion, the talent, and determination to make it. You're super gorgeous, but that's going down another road..
Arie:
*Looks at me*
*starts to cry*
*runs away into the bathroom*
*comes back*
*sits down next to me*
*Looks at me*
*Starts crying again*
Its crazy how much we are alike. I feel like I am taking in everything you're saying, because although we are different, we have almost exact similarities. And I'm taking in everyone's words and feeling it like this for you. I don't think God does this often, where he takes two people and says, "dis person is like dis, and dat person is like dat, wow they're gonna be almost identical and from opposite sides of the world but HEY! We'll let them meet!" So I thank God that I have someone like you who understands me, and visa versa, I understand you. (I interject how great that is, since not a lot of people understand me at all. She agrees and starts to cry again, laughing).
*hugs me*
*tell me she loves me*
*I love her too*
*Everybody stares like they're watching reality TV and two of the characters went into speaking a different language for the climactic emotional moment*
*Arie and I both know, and laugh*
So there's a rough summary of the loving words that overwhelmed my being, and continue to resonate in my heart. I am so glad I wrote them down here, so that I can look back and remind myself that this is how my friends view me, and together, this is how God collectively sees me. So when I don't see myself this way, these encouragements can lift me up to that place of goodness and excellence that I did not think I could reach, like what Kyle said earlier.
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