Kavita Badasha: You Are Only As Old As You Feel & Behave

Celebrating a birthday away from home for the first time can be a difficult, yet exciting, occasion. I celebrated my birthday two weeks into my semester abroad. I fought with various emotions on that day. It was the first time I was away from home and the idea and actuality of not being surrounded by my family and friends, not taking part in the birthday traditions that I usually do, gave me mixed emotions
  
Over the weekend of my birthday, 8 girls rented 2 cars and took off to Montpellier and Toulouse for a 4-day road trip of the South of France. I wondered what it would be like, what and how I would feel, not being surrounded by the familiarity of home. Naturally I missed home; however, the girls did an outstanding job making my birthday a special one. 

I learned from my new German friends that they celebrate “into” birthdays, so at midnight on Feb.18, I was surprised with a cake and they sang Happy Birthday to me. I was genuinely surprised and very thankful! The following day (my birthday) just prior to going out, I was surprised yet again. This time with a flag of France. On it each “country” wrote out Happy Birthday in their respective language. The perfect keepsake!

I am so thankful to the girls who went out of their way to do these unique things for me on my birthday. Perhaps they don’t quite realize how much they did do, or how they made me feel, but I felt so special. I think it is a little more extraordinary because these girls, whom I’d only known for a little over two weeks, went out of their way to do such things to make my birthday a happy one! They succeeded because I have the photos, flag and memories to prove it!                          

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