Well, I found out recently that St. Patrick’s Day is an actual holiday in some places, namely Chicago. If someone had asked me what I thought of St. Patrick’s Day my response would have been something like this. “It’s that day when all the annoying people at school or work or wherever make sure you don’t have green on, and when they find out you don’t, for some reason find it incredibly funny and fulfilling to pinch you.” Now that’s my idea of a good time. However, things were a bit different here, but I guess I should have known what I was in for this past weekend, I have seen “The Fugitive” a few times. Instead of the pinching, the idea is to see how many people you can get drunk as early in the morning as possible and then allow them to walk around the streets while continuing to drink. People were up at 6 in the mornin’ to hurry to get in line for the cool bars so they could get in and do their thing. Now that, is truly my idea of a good time, unlike pinching people.

On the bright side though, never have I been prouder of my ginger heritage. By my own estimation, this was the largest single gathering of red hair and freckles in one place that has ever happened in the history of the entire world (I guess besides every day life in Ireland, but other than that, this was for sure the biggest). There were highfives, what’s up chin nods, chest bumps, forearm shivers and many other greetings given. It truly was a great time. Now granted, some people might say try and tell me that I don’t have red hair anymore, it’s more of a brown and I am just a poser (which would be weird because how many people go out of their way to claim red? My bet would be not many). I will not try to refute that suggestion. But the point is, I went through childhood as a reddie, and because of that, I feel that I can stake claim to red status for life. I can enjoy the benefits of not only making it through, but thriving, when the world was telling me that it is hopeless.

So, if nothing else, I learned that St Patty’s Day is a day I can be proud of my heritage. Thanks Chicago.