I have always been young for my age, so I was always the last one out of my friend group to celebrate their birthday. Waiting for my birthday this year was without a doubt the hardest. While all my friends turned 21 this year, I had to wait for the summer until I could finally say I was 21. Although being 21 doesn’t matter much in Ghana, turning 21 in America is supposed to be the biggest celebration of your life! I already knew that my 21st would be spent in Ghana, so I didn’t plan to celebrate excessively, especially knowing I had to get up at 7:00 in the morning for work the next day. Although I knew I had an early morning, I still planned to celebrate a little, knowing my big day had finally arrived.

When I woke up on my birthday, I instantly knew that my special day would be one I would remember for the rest of my life, but not for the reason I had hoped for. I closed my eyes the night before with excitement, but I woke up on my birthday with excruciating pain. My worst fear was not being able to enjoy my 21st while in Ghana. I shortly realized after I got here that I would have no problem having fun, but all that didn’t matter because I had food poisoning on my birthday.

I couldn’t believe my luck. Of course I would be the one to have food poisoning for the second time. I was laying in bed thinking, “Why me? Why me?” All day I was sleeping, running to the bathroom, taking antibiotics, and hoping I would get better by the evening. Leslie, our program director, was leaving the next day and was having a dinner during the night at a place called Starbites, a restaurant well known for its fantastic food. She had planned it so the group could get together one last time before she left, and it happened to be on my birthday so she wanted to celebrate that as well. All day I was trying to get better so I could see Leslie one last time before she left, and man, was it a struggle.

At one point I was laying in bed thinking, “There is not a chance I will be able to attend dinner tonight.” I wasn’t going to give up that easy, no way, especially after all the things Leslie had done for me while I’ve been in Ghana. Around 6 o’clock I was finally able to get out of bed and I tried to eat some food. I had some mango in the fridge and when I tried to eat it, my stomach was in so much pain, but I knew I had to eat something before I left because I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I thought a shower might help, but there is no hot water, so I was standing under the shower head, shivering, and it was by far the quickest shower I have taken since I’ve been here. The next step was taking a cab. I thought to myself the whole ride that I could not throw up, and if I had to, I would just hold it in until we got to the restaurant. Finally, I reached my goal, arriving at Starbites for dinner.

While sitting there waiting for dinner, we ordered beverages first and they had smoothies on the menu. I knew instantly that a smoothie is what I would be getting, and I made the right decision because it definitely helped my stomach pain. Although it helped, I had not eaten anything all day so my stomach was empty, which made the pain even worse. I knew that we were here for Leslie, so I just put a smile on my face even though I just wanted to be in bed asleep. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to eat the pizza, but I had to try. I let everyone else get their pizza first because I didn’t want to be in the rush to get in line, but luckily there was still the pizza I wanted left.

Once I took my first bite, I instantly knew that I would feel much better if I ate it all. So I ate every single piece and finished my smoothie, and for the first time all day I felt fine to an extent. I was still in minimal pain, but I was able to enjoy the dinner for the rest of the evening and actually relax for the first time on my birthday. After the dinner, I went straight to the couch and laid down, and I was feeling much better.

I went to bed hoping I would be back to normal, and I woke up back to my old self. No pain, no excessive bathroom trips, and no food poisoning. I ended up laughing at myself and was thinking, “I would be the one to get sick on my 21st.” Yet at the end of the day, I wasn’t even mad I was sick. I was just happy I had finally reached the big 21. It wasn’t the way I planned to spend my birthday, but at the end of the day, does anything ever go as planned?