Today I met a guy who had just turned 34 years old.  I asked him if he had a birthday party to celebrate…he just laughed.

He said that now, he is much too old to have a birthday party but when he was young, he had three parties.  That these are his fondest childhood memories.

I was confused and asked why he had only three parties.  His voice broke a little as he told me that he grew up in the countryside of Vietnam in a family of seven brothers and sisters.  He went on to say that his parents worked very hard but were very poor.  They only had enough money to celebrate one or two birthdays a year.  His parties were when he turned 6, 12 and 16.

I just can’t stop thinking about this story.