It's ridiculous.
Really.
I'm 19.
That's not the ridiculous part.
Okay, maybe a little.
Really, I'm 19. This shouldn't have made me as excited as it did.

But a surprise birthday party really was the the coolest thing ever.


The whole college thing is incredible. Nothing better.
But every once in a while there are moments when you think (for just a few seconds) that you miss the way it used to be. Back home, with your parents and your bedtime and your concrete definitions of the way things should be.
Birthdays are usually one of those times.


So, a couple weeks ago my parents call me up and tell me they're getting me tickets to a White Sox game for my birthday. This excites me out of a love of the game and for not other reason. Then they tell me the Orioles are playing the White Sox. The Orioles. My Orioles. So I grab a couple friends and we take the El down to Kamiski park. Where we are the only O's fans in the park.
You know that list of things everybody's supposed to do before they die?
Cheering on your team on the road needs to be on it.
Best birthday present a kid could ask for.

And when, a couple weeks later, my actual birthday rolled around, I figure it's over. Sure, I'll go out to dinner somewhere other than the dining hall. Sure we might even get ice cream. And, heck, Sharon even took me to the movies.

Great.
Birthday.
Done.

It doesn't phase me that I've been kept out of the dorm all afternoon and evening. I was busy. Strike, load-out, Church, dinner, movies, meeting.
So when we're wandering back to campus and Sarah and Alex suggest we go downstairs and play pool, it sounds like as good a plan as any. Because the alternative is homework, and I just don't want to do that on my birthday. So to the basement we go...

AND THERE'S A PARTY IN THERE!
FOR ME!


My parents' scheming did not end in the bottom of the ninth, no.
No, instead they created an epic plot involving half the dorm.
They shipped a box.
They shipped a birthday party in a box.
They shipped a birthday party in a box to Kae.
They sent my birthday to Kae. And then Kae orchestrated a masterpiece of a facebook event involving everybody without me even knowing what was going on.
And so I walked into the game room to find a dozen of my friends and a cake and streamers and silly party hats and candy and sodas and those things you blow into that make noise and a piņata and the whole thing baseball themed.


I'm not sure if this was a realization of how incredibly amazing parents are,
Or if it was a realization of how cool my friends are.
Maybe both.

Maybe it was just, like Kae said, it was really my first birthday.
Anakin's birthday, for the first time.


Or maybe it was just proof that growing up isn't all bad, and those things we think are going to be the worst parts are actually the best.



Either way. It was pretty cool. And I liked it.
And I'm blown away by the people in my life and how much they like me.
May the Force be with you all. Amen.