A Birthday to Remember

19 is the boring birthday between five exciting birthdays. At 16, you can finally drive. At 17, you can go to R-rated movies (ok, so not all that exciting, but at least something changes). At 18, you are considered a legal adult, and 20 you have made it through your teen years! And everyone knows why Americans love their 21st birthday. But there is nothing exciting about 19. You still have all the freedoms you got when you were 18, and no one really looks at you as more mature than an 18-year-old. In fact, there's pretty much no difference between 18 and 19. So for that reason, 19 is a boring birthday.

Except in my case...

How many people can say they spent their 19th birthday sailing through the Atlantic? How many people can say that on their birthday they went whale watching and laid out under a huge expanse of stars. I must say that while the age of 19 is not all that exciting, my 19th birthday was far more thrilling than my 18th, and I doubt my 20th will be able to top it either.

On the evening of the 10th, my roomate Chelsea told me I had to stay up until midnight so that she could be the first to wish me happy birthday. For the past couple of years, Aly, one of my good friends at home, has been the first person to wish me happy birthday by sending me a text message around 6 o'clock in the morning. Chelsea, however, was determined that this year she could beat Aly due to the fact that I don't have a cell phone, therefore I cannot recieve text messages. Around 11:30 I was exhausted and really wanted to go to bed, but Chelsea maintained that I had to stay up. I decided to get on Facebook to widdle away the last half hour before I was allowed to go to sleep. At 11:55, guess who signed onto Facebook chat? None other than Aly! I told her that she had competition this year in wishing me happy birthday, and reminded her that by my time, my birthday was only 5 minutes away. Now the race was on. Unfortunately for Chelsea, she ran out of the room for a second, sure that she would make it back before midnight. But at 12 o'clock on the dot, Aly sent me several birthday wished over Facebook. Chelsea, of course, was devastated, and Aly quite proud of her accomplishment, all the while I just enjoyed that two of my friends who don't even know each other were fighting over the titlement of "First Birthday Wisher of the Year".

The morning of the 11th, I was able to sleep in since I did not have to go to work. I woke up to find the table in our front area of the cabin completely covered in candies spelling "Happy 19th!" with a note from my 4416 family. It was so cute that I decided to take a picture. I went back into my bunk area to search for my camera, and when I returned, the exclamation point was gone! Apparently one of my roomates got a bit hungry and couldnt wait for me to take a picture before she dug in.

After I got dressed, I headed up to Town Square to get myself some coffee and to see Chelsea and Kaylee. Once I got up there, I was immediately surrounded by people showering me with hugs and "Happy Birthdays". The thing about living on a ship in a small community is that when it is somebodies birthday, EVERYBODY knows. Which of course, I don't mind at all.

On the ship, we have a tradition that when it is somebody's birthday, his friends ring the giant bell hanging on the wall and announce the birthday, then everyone sings and bangs loudly on the table. So at lunch, Bonny Jean and Emma waltzed proudly to the bell and rung it loudly, announcing that it was my birthday. I did not realize how incredibly awkward it is to have the entire dining hall all of a sudden stare at you and start singing while you are in the middle of eating! Apparently, my face turned bright red and my blushing could be seen from all the way on the opposite side of the dining room.

I decided to spend my afternoon in my home away from home here on the ship -- the crew galley. We got pecans on the ship for the first time, so I had been dying to make a pecan pie and finally I had time! Since Emma is allergic to nuts, she also requested that I make some sort of dessert without pecans. I decided to try my hand at a blackberry cobbler, even though I've never made on before. I just sort of guessed and estimated at what might work for the filling, and it ended up tasting quite good! Later in the evening, my cabinmates, Kaylee, and Emma's brother Chris all sat down with me to dine on pie and cobbler in celebration of my 19th year of living. Afterwards, we all went to the bow where we watched the ship glide through the waves and rock back and forth as the sun set beautifully over the horizon.

I came back to my cabin to see that I had several messages from my friends and family all wishing me a happy birthday. While I really enjoyed spending my birthday with all of my Mercy Ships friends, it was so nice to know that even back home all of my friends were thinking of me as well.