21st Birthday Abroad

The question asked most frequently during the first few years of college is probably the same for many American students: 

"When do you turn 21?"

I always knew that my 21st birthday would come in a rather anticlimactic fashion. I couldn't help but envision several different scenarios. Some involved a night out with American friends who could appreciate the significance of the day. Another prediction was a peaceful and innocent evening with my Brazilian hosts. What really happened was probably impossible to foresee. 

I usually don't like birthdays, especially my own. In my mind, society has built into our lives an over-abundance of illogical reasons to celebrate being alive, and I just don't need any more gluttony imposed on me. So, in my greatest display of hypocrisy, I impulsively bought myself tickets to Lollapalooza in Sao Paulo for my birthday. 

Though thousands were in attendance, I spent the weekend away from all Brazilians and Americans. I was in a group of 7 people including 5 girls: a Norwegian, a German and 3 French; a Spanish guy and myself. We took an overnight 6 hour bus to Sao Paulo on Friday night, attended the festival all day Saturday, crammed all 7 of us into one hotel room Saturday night, went back to the festival all day Sunday, then went directly on another overnight bus back to Rio on Sunday night. 72 hours with no bed really is not so bad.

The bands we saw included Muse, Arcade Fire, Lorde, Vampire Weekend, Imagine Dragons and many more. If you have ever been to Lollapalooza or a similar music festival, you know that sharing any other details would probably not be wise in this type of forum.

My true birthday, Monday, began at midnight in the bus station. Not a single hour during the whole weekend passed without one of my friends screaming in my face, "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!!" so I figured the celebration was over. When the clock struck midnight, the German girl, Isabelle, put a brownie with a lit candle in front of my face: "The candle is in the shape of a zero," she said, "because today is the first day of the rest of your life!" My new friends then started to sing happy birthday to me in their home languages. Finally, they threw me a present: a white t-shirt with notes written on the back to serve as a souvenir for my birthday weekend. 

What an amazing rush it was to have friends from all over the world put so much effort into making my birthday special. Throughout the day Monday I did absolutely nothing but reflect and chat with people from home. The combination of heartfelt messages from my lifelong friends and the ridiculous stunts from my new amigos was inspiring.

As a 17 year old, I decided to major in International Business because I knew it would give me the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world. Studying languages enables me to have meaningful conversations with millions of people. The great web of life is powerful. My birthday sparked the epiphany that though the world sometimes feels so big, it is really quite small.