My Friend Jimmy

In case you didn’t already know this about me, I have a deep and powerful love for 39th president Jimmy Carter. You can say what you want about his politics, but I find it completely amazing that a small town peanut farmer from Georgia can go on to hold the highest office in the country.

So when I heard that my friend Jimmy (I call him this after my 8th-grade project I did on him) was coming to Atlanta’s Carter Center to sign copies of his new book, White House Diary, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to cross an item off my Life List.

I got there at 4:50 for an event I thought started at 5, but apparently it started at 6. I’m glad I got there early though, because I had to buy a book for him to sign (I chose Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid because I was dying to read it and they were out of his newest book) and still stood in line for over an hour. The line wound through the entire Carter Presidential Library, where I got to brush up on my Jimmy history.

While waiting in line, I saw a girl probably no older than 10 reading a copy of Keeping Faith, Carter’s first memoir, while a boy around her age sat next to her playing Nintendo DS. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

I was so excited to finally get to meet him! I was worried that the event would be cancelled, since he was in the hospital a few weeks ago, but he seemed to be in good spirits despite having to sign hundreds of copies of his books with the sun shining into his eyes.

I gave one of his interns a copy of a book about Plains that I found while cleaning out an office and my dad’s shopping center. I smiled at him and thanked him for signing my book. Some people’s heroes are celebrities, but apparently mine are former presidents.