Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your birthday wishes. Each and every one meant more to me than you know, especially because I am so far, physically, from many of the people I love most.
With that said, I had a wonderful birthday here in Venice! At the end of the workday, the PGC crew presented me with a poster of one of my favorite Picassos, which they all signed with sweet birthday messages; then we all headed back to my place for drinks, cake, music, and conversation. And I must say, Giulia and Jess really outdid themselves with their great gifts! (Art, fashion, and food - what more could a girl ask for?!?)
Birthdays are funny and in some ways paradoxical in their ability to make us both nostalgic and future focused.... On that note, here are a few of my birthday memories and wishes:
1) For each birthday until our Bat-Mitzvahs, Mommy, Talia and I made homemade cakes in bear shaped cake tins for our birthdays. Mom would take us to the candy store to pick out candy with which to decorate our cakes and we’d spend hours strategically adorning our bears with M&Ms and gummy worms. (It was always an especially good year if Abba could come to the candy store too, because that meant that we could get extra candy to eat on the way home and possibly a giant jaw-breaker that would nearly last until our next birthdays…) Funny that art and cooking are now my two favorite hobbies! Actually, my mom has always been creative in those sorts of ways – when we were young she insisted we make handmade cards for all occasions and until this day we still uphold that tradition!
I hope that my family will always be a source of creative inspiration for me, and I for them.
2) As a child, my leap-day birthday made me the brunt of a lot of "baby" jokes. For example, my best family friends Zach and Micah Fredman used to tease me about my age: when I was six they'd laugh at me and tell me that I was only one and a half, when I was eight, they'd mock me for being but two... Of course, at the time in my life when even quarter years were of the utmost importance, their jokes were extremely offensive, but now at the ripe old age of twenty-two I'm shocked by how quickly time has passed and though I would not ever want to go back in time, a part of me longs for the simplicity of childhood, particularly where emotions are concerned.
I hope that I will always have the ability to be self-reflective and emotionally aware, and that I will continue to be blessed with the amazing support system that I have now.
3) On my fifteenth birthday I was at the supermarket with my dad and we bumped into my lifelong friend Liviya Kraemer, who had planned to have me and two other friends over for a birthday sleepover that night. Liviya was carrying three large Entenmann’s cakes when I bumped into her. I noted that three cakes was excessive, but she casually responded with, “never too much cake.” As we were leaving the supermarket my dad said to me, “funny that we bumped into Livi buying cakes for your surprise party tonight.” I laughed and said, “Abba, it’s not a surprise party!” My friends always joke about my gullible nature and rightfully so, because yes, to my complete surprise, twenty or so friends were at Livi’s house that evening for one of the best birthday celebrations of my life.
I hope that my lifelong friendships continue to prosper and that the new friendships I have made here, and will continue to make throughout my life, will be equally valuable to me.
Happy Birthday from mitchell Suter on Vimeo.
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