This is Amos. He is an economics major, but loves English more than any of my English students! He is full of energy, not shy in the least, always eager to learn, and one of the kindest people I think I have ever met. Last week Amos invited Allie and me to go to his 21st birthday party-- that's why he's dressed up in a sports coat. He said the party would be small, but we had no idea what to expect. We didn't know exactly where his party was, so we arranged to meet him outside the library. We were a little confused when he came running out of the darkness from behind a random building. Although we were a little scared, he was super excited, so we followed him through the darkness to his birthday party. This is what we found:
I don't think I can adequately express how sweet/heartbreaking/humbling the night was. Amos had found a table that was in a secluded area, covered it with newspaper, and laid out all kinds of different foods for us to eat while celebrating his birthday! He had one battery powered lamp to light our celebration. As we were looking at the food, we remembered that a week ago Amos had asked us what some of our favorite foods were-- he had bought all of our favorite foods and that is what we ate at his birthday party. There were only 6 of us at the party: Allie, me, Amos, his girlfriend, and their two friends. During the course of the conversation Amos told us that this was his first birthday party ever; he was very poor growing up and could never afford to celebrate his birthday. Even on this night, as we celebrated his 21st birthday with his first birthday party, he somehow managed to make the evening all about us. At one point we said that we really liked a type of bread and he literally lied to us, saying he had to "go to the bathroom", then ran about a mile so that he could buy us some more of the bread and bring it back! How convicting it was to realize that every one of my 28 birthday parties has been all about me... every year my friends and family graciously do whatever I want to do in an effort to make me happy. But here I was, with someone I've known only about 2 months, celebrating the first birthday party that he's been able to afford, and yet somehow the evening is still all about me. I hope that somehow Amos feels as blessed by his birthday party as I do!
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