MICHAEL 

So much time has passed since I’ve seen Michael. I don’t know if life has changed the warm, passionate and wickedly funny guy I knew in college. From the start I admired his directness, how he shed light on the absurdities of the everyday routine. Tiny moments stay logged in my memory. In Spanish class, while other students dutifully responded that their favorite foods were bistecca or carne asada, Michael truthfully answered that he preferred “Triscuts y Pepsi.” During the emotional finale of the film My Family, when the mother is about to voice her life’s regrets with “If only we’d had…” Michael finished her sentence:  ”..a CD player.”  These quips, out of context years later, might not seem like much but they are classic Michael: funny, unexpected, and completely his own.

After college I visited Michael as he finished his studies in Madrid and we took off on a rambling trip through Europe and North Africa. Old castles, sherry bars, fine art museums, walled cities, 99-peseta Whoopers, Moroccan bazaars, a Pamela-Anderson themed birthday party, sleeping in a 100-person backpackers’ tent, a dance club filled with foam, drinking in bier gardens, fighting our way through the streets of Berlin, and riding on camel back to camp under the Saharan stars.  It was a trips of ups and downs, and I always feared my extremely ordinary personality was a disappointment to Michael, who craved all the adventure life could offer. It was a trip of a lifetime, not because of what we saw or where we went but because of the unique way Michael experienced the world.

I only recently found Michael again online and haven’t managed to meet up with him to reminisce on old times and “become new besties” but I hope he still has that warm, defiant spirit I remember so well. If only to remind boring people like me that the world is what you make it.

Happy Birthday Wonderful You!