A Birthday Story

June 15, 2008

Today I was informed through a series of hectic messages at the last minute that I had to get to Ashgabat tomorrow morning. Irritated and pissed off, I dragged myself to the train station to learn there were only four tickets left for tonight’s journey and naturally everyone in the station charged the window and my pathetic attempt for a ticket was unsuccessful.

Defeated and angry I kicked rocks on the long walk home knowing I’d have to get up before dawn and pay a ridiculous sum of money for a taxi to get into the capital tomorrow morning.

I didn’t want to do anything…and I especially wasn’t interested in going to one of my student’s birthday parties that evening, but I had promised.

I showed up, tired and pissed off, and explained I wouldn’t stay long, that I was very tired and upset and had many things to do. Basically I told him over and over again that I was more important than spending a few hours with him and his family for his birthday.

For one, he was upset because none of his other friends had come. And secondly, who the hell was I to shove my irritation in the face of a kid on his birthday?

But I didn’t realize this at the time, and he told me sadly that this was turning out to be a very bad birthday. He was upset that I was upset.

And I realized that I was pawning off my negativity onto him, and on his BIRTHDAY for crying out loud. How low could I go?

I stepped into his house and was greeted warmly by one of the most gracious, kind-hearted families I’ve ever met in my life. My problems vanished immediately and I felt amazing being around these people. My spirits lifted within seconds and I immediately felt like an asshole for not seeing how much this meant to him. Just being there made a huge difference in this kid’s life. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t even want to take a few hours out of my life to do this.

Being here does make a difference…it happens in small doses when I’m not looking, but it really does happen.