A Fruity Birthday Tradition

I guess it was approximately fifteen years ago that I met one of my favorite people on the planet.

At the time, Nate was only in seventh grade... but even then, he was an old soul. He viewed the world in a way that most people his age didn't; he imparted wisdom that I doubt he realized he even had.

Nate walked into my classroom at a time when my self-esteem was at its absolute lowest. He didn't know that, of course. Or, if he did, it's because it was intuited rather than told to him. Like I said: he is an old soul. And, whether he realized he was doing it or not, he boosted me up and helped me to rediscover my creativity and my appreciation for life.

Somehow, Nate and I bonded over fruit. Neither one of us remembers the whole story, but after discussing our shared past earlier today, we decided the key details are as follows:

• As a seventh-grader, Nate had never had a pomegranate. (And now that I think about it, I'll bet we started talking about pomegranates because of the Christmas guacamole that my mom often makes around this time of year. There are pomegranates involved... and I likely told my students about it.)

• As a seventh-grader, Nate was turning older on December 2.

• As a seventh-grader, Nate received a pomegranate from his English teacher on his birthday.

This gift resulted in an annual tradition of me gifting him fruit. I can remember packaging a pineapple and sending it through the United States Postal Service when Nate was in college. And when he turned 21, I gifted him a six-pack of fruit-infused beers.

As has always been the case, Nate turned older this week on December 2.

A snow day got in the way of his annual birthday delivery.

Then he missed school on December 3 because he was sick.

Today was the day. Today, Nate received one of my most fruitatious gifts to date: Happy and Bertha Day. They are a happily married pair of prickly cactus pears. Happy wears his hair long (despite not being able to grow said hair atop his head), sports a gold hoop in his left ear, and enjoys motorcycle rides when the weather is mild. Bertha, who is hip enough to have a stud in her nose and occasionally accompany her husband on his beloved bike rides, would much prefer to spend her afternoon picnicking in a meadow full of wildflowers. They are both eager to be consumed by Nate in the near future.

Nate is one of the best, and I'm honored to have him as both a friend and a coworker. I've gifted him fruit for the past fifteen years, and I will ABSOLUTELY be gifting him fruit for at least fifteen more!