This is an exciting 4th of July for me. Not only am I excited to celebrate the holiday for obvious reasons, I also get to experience the celebration through the eyes of a foreigner. My dear friend Matt is visiting from Australia. We haven’t seen each other for more than ten years.
This is Matt’s first time in Minneapolis and his first American Fourth of July. He’s excited. I’m ecstatic. I met Matt in the Budapest train station 15 years ago. The two of us and our respective sets of friends traveled together to Prague. Matt visited me in Boston a few months later, and I visited him before heading into my last semester of law school. We brought in 1997 together on Sydney Harbor…overlooking the famous Opera House. The world got to see the amazing fireworks over that location when 2000 hit, but I got a sneak peek experiencing them first-hand several years in advance.
I feel I get to pay Matt back for that amazing visit and those dazzling fireworks. He showed me his country, and now I can show him mine…at least a part of it. I was welcomed by his family, and now mine will welcome him. In fact, my brother will pick him up at the airport because I will be on air at the radio station when he lands Wednesday morning.
And what a coincidence today is Matt’s birthday. So happy birthday Matt and happy birthday to this country that means so much to so many.
