Buddha

I remember when I was in 11th grade we had to choose a book to read out of so many options and from that book we had to prepare a presentation for the class. It was one of my first 'big' projects, as the presentation would have to last about 10 minutes and I was nervous.

Whenever I have presentations like that I flash back to my most traumatic school presentation from third grade where my fake mustache fell off, causing me to forget my lines and tears to flow from my eyes.

Anyways, by 11th grade I had overcome my overzealousness for school and fear of embarrassing myself. So I knew I wouldn't have a problem.

Point of this story is that for my book I read the biography of Buddha and I made a sweet presentation (sweet meaning if i remember right i got a B. i blame mr. pruett. JK! some of my fave books ever come this class). From this simple school assignment, I found myself fascinated with Buddha and his teachings. The four noble truths, the eightfold path, it was all so interesting!

If I weren't LDS, I would be Jewish. But if I weren't LDS or Jewish, I'd be Buddhist.

Fast forward to my sophomore year of college when I had to choose another book and prepare another report. Yet again, there was a book on Buddha on the list. Done and done. This time my project deserved an A (thanks professor hamblin! still in my top 5 professors list, if only for your billowing chest hair and socks with sandals look).

Since being in Asia, I have a lot more time to surround myself in Buddhist traditions and teachings. I love it.

I also love Buddha because he has a birthday. And his birthday is on Friday. And we don't have school on Friday.

So the MAIN point of this post was to say thanks and early happy birthday, Buddha.

Oh, and I love the lanterns.

Even though every time I type lantern,

I forget the first n and have to fix it.

(please enjoy all the links. i worked really really hard on them)