Worst Birthday Ever

Alright, before I dive into this, no, this is not clickbait. My birthday was quite possibly the worst birthday ever. But, hang in there and hear me out. This email isn't going to be me complaining and venting the whole time, but I feel there is value and importance in showing that not every birthday is going to be amazing and it's ok to have a bad birthday. Also, I'll be semi-vulnerable in this post, as you guys know I usually am.

11:59 pm, Sunday, September 26, 2021. One minute until my birthday. I sit and wait for the clock to hit midnight. The seconds go by and finally it's here. September 27, 2021, 23 years since I was born.

"Wahoo!!! It's my birthday!" I exclaim. My roommates begin to sing happy birthday. I'm so excited. I go to sleep around 1. I wake up in the morning and get a ride with my classmate down to Rigby for my practicum in the elementary school. The students are amazing. They sing me happy birthday and we have a blast. The rest of the day is amazing. A friend offered to buy me lunch at the Crossroads, we sit and chat the whole time as we discuss how excited I am for the next year. We don't get around to talking about too much, since I have class in half an hour. I race off to class. After class, I go home. I work on homework, however, I'm constantly bombarded with friends coming over to see me and say happy birthday.

Around 6 pm, my roommates and my FHE sisters go out to dinner. Since its FHE and my birthday, we figured we'd celebrate. Man, what an amazing dinner we had. Amazing food with some amazing company. I couldn't have asked for a better night. We head home around 8 and get back to the apartment. A few friends decided to bake a cake and sing happy birthday. My brother and sister come over and hang out. I fall asleep around midnight, reflecting on what a wonderful day it's been and I couldn't be more grateful for the best birthday ever... wait a second, that doesn't seem right... let's rewind.

11:59 pm, Sunday, September 26, 2021. One minute until my birthday. I'm standing there, waiting for the clock to hit midnight. Suddenly, it's here. September 27, 2021, another birthday has arrived.

"Wahoo!! It's my birthday!" I exclaim. However, my excitement is short lived.

"Hi, welcome to Taco Bell. What can I get for you today?" I ask. Oh, yeah, I started my birthday off by working. I had already been working for six hours and I was supposedly only working for another 2 hours... we'll see. 

One hour until closing. For the next hour, I took orders, made drinks, and passed out food. It wasn't all that bad, though. My brother was cashing out in the back window and would tell people to wish me a happy birthday, so that was actually really good. In addition, my friends Kaylee, Sierra, and Hannah stopped by, my friend Eli, and then my coworker Evie, stopped by. So, I can't 100% say, that hour sucked. Which is why, I'm extremely grateful for those friends. 

The hour passes and we're closed. One hour until my shift ends (haha... yeah, about that). There is so much to do and it's my birthday. The last thing I want to do to start off my birthday is to close the restaurant, but I had no choice. 

It sucked. First thing: clean the grills. I had barely been trained on this, so it was an experiment to clean the grills. I still don't think they were fully cleaned, but oh well. Second: back line. This absolutely sucks. It takes forever because it takes a ton of scrubbing, especially because meat gets onto the line and it's there all day and it's super hard to scrub off. I take the next 45 minutes to scrub ONE LINE. JUST ONE. 

Fast forward to 1:50 and I break. I've been frustrated. It's 2 am on my birthday. I have to be up again in 5 hours and I'm struggling. I lean up against the tortillas, slide to the floor and cry. It's my birthday and I'm crying. A giant mental breakdown because it was just too much. Maybe it was the lack of midnight birthday texts, maybe it was the fact that I was working, maybe it was the fact that it felt like I was never going to get out of work and I would be there until 5 am. Whatever the cause, I was tired and exhausted and wanted to go home. It was probably all three accumulated and probably more things going on that my mind just couldn't handle. But, here I am sitting on the kitchen floor of Taco Bell at 2 am, crying. 

I knew I couldn't spend all night crying, so I got back up, frustrated at the universe and cleaned. I didn't get off work until 3:30 am. I walk home with my brother, shower, and go to bed (or take a 3 hour nap. whatever you would like to call it).

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! It's 7 am. 3 hours of sleep. Ugh! I don't want to be awake, but I'm actually excited for my first class. I get to go to the elementary school and hang out with students. It'll be blast. And it was. They didn't sing happy birthday, but that was my fault as I didn't tell the class it was my birthday until most left for recess. 

I attend my second class. I continually dose off as I have only had 3 hours of sleep. It sucks. I came to school to learn, but instead I'm sleeping because of a terrible work schedule. However, it once again wasn't all that bad. Two girls in my class, Parker and Syrena, I usually partner up with them for group assignments. We had fun. We talked and I mentioned it was my birthday. Syrena said she would bring me a cake on Wednesday and come visit me at work that night.

I leave class and head to get lunch. Apollos Grill. I order a gyros. Amazing as usual and I have a wonderful conversation with someone in the class I just got out of. Time soon runs out and we both leave for studying and class. I head to the Hinckley building for class. I ran into my old trainer on the way up to the Hinckley. Once again, I dozed off multiple times and missed some content. Thankfully my teacher was understanding as I explained the situation. 

Class gets out. Finally, I can go home and relax for the rest of the evening. I can get some homework done, hang out with friends, go to dinner. It'll be great. Well, I went home and took a nap, did some homework, visited with a couple of friends. But, then I had to get ready for work. To be fair, I didn't call off my birthday because I requested Saturday off and didn't want to request my actual birthday off. I didn't expect it to be super terrible though. 

I arrive and immediately I'm put on prep. Frying food, grabbing lettuce, making sauce bottles, all the boring stuff. Half an hour in, and my roommates and FHE sisters show up. I expected it, so it wasn't unplanned. I was happy they decided to visit me at work. I only had a couple of minutes to chat and then when they left, we got a selfie. My shift continues and then Ally, Kaitlyn, Kyra, Rachel, and Robert showed up and said hi. They are all amazing people and I was grateful for that. My night continues and someone dropped off Sonic, we think it was for me. Later on, another mission trainer, Rockhard Waters showed up. My friends Maia and Eli came. I ran into some old friends. A family friend, the Waldrons, showed up and brought cupcakes. My sister came and brought a ton of balloons and cupcakes. That was a blessing. Oh, and Syrena, she showed up and with her roommates and brought me a slice of cake.

The last 3ish hours of work, I was on drive thru. I was able to pass out orders and then take orders. I had a blast. I also convinced quite a few people to take a survey and mention my name, so I can get a bonus. By the end of the night, we had four done, although there should have been more done. 

The clock hits midnight. It's over. I'm 23. I don't know what to do from here on out. Life is still taking me places and it's still quite the adventure.

However, it was interesting how this day turned out to not be what I expected it to be. And that's ok. Yes, it wasn't a fun birthday. Yes, it may have been the worst birthday. But hey, one of my birthdays has to be the worst. Well, maybe the birthday I spent in detention in middle school, might have been the worst. But, this hits close. 

We can't expect everything to go our way. We know life won't always go our way. We need to embrace the idea of unexpectedness. Embrace the thought of things not going your way. Embrace the failures. Embrace the bad days because in the end, things will get better. Things will improve. And eventually, things will be good. 

So, while I did have the worst birthday ever, in a sense, it was the best birthday ever because of the many lessons I learned and the love I felt from those who wished me a happy birthday and did things for me. I couldn't have been more grateful for the love and support I felt on my birthday. The blessings still outweighed the trials of my birthday. And I definitely did feel the love and support.

Thank you all for your love and support. It continues to mean the most to me and I appreciate it.