Penguins have held a very special place in my heart since a memorable class back in grade eight. For some reason that I can't remember, my english teacher had asked us to make a list of things that made us happy, and then had us read them to the class. It was an interesting experience to see what made some people happy, but the only one I can remember is the one that struck all of us as strange...at least at first. 'Jerad' told us that penguins made him happy. Penguins??! we all wondered. Until he explained. I believe he put it this way: "If you were having a really bad day, and suddenly a penguin waddled into the room, wouldn't you laugh or at least crack a smile?" I had to admit, he was completely right! For quite some time-in fact, even in grade twelve, those of us who had been in that class would occasionally say something like "I need a penguin today!" Since then, I've loved penguins. My calender for 2009 was a penguin calender, and it was definitely nice to see when I was frustrated during a homework assignment. Also, during a trip with a band that I auditioned and became part of, we visited Niagara Falls. At one of the shops in the slightly-less-touristy-area closest to the falls, I found that they were selling lots of different stuffed animals-including baby emperor penguins. I couldn't resist...never mind that I was almost 18 years old at the time!
I was, however, stuck on finding a name. My mom gave me the hint, saying that she didn't know what to call a penguin either, and that the only emperor she knew was Napoleon. Well, Napoleon stuck. Less than three weeks after coming back from the band trip, I ended up in the C & A psychiatric ward due to extreme stress combined with a depressive episode culminating in a feeble suicide attempt (feeble meaning that it had almost no chance of succeeding but in those moments, I was serious about trying to make it work) right in front of my dad while in the emergency room. The next day, when my dad brought over a bag of my things, my mom had put in Napoleon. Napoleon helped me get through those two weeks, just like a special stuffed tiger helped a friend that I made on the unit, never mind that she was also an older teenager like myself. I guess we all need something to hang onto from time to time.
Summer is definitely starting to come to an end. Although I'm going to miss working at the daycare when I finish next friday, I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to school...being around other crazy young musicians and my friends all the time again! Plus, I'm really looking forward to getting back into lessons for both piano and flute that look at more than just the audition material and starting back at orchestra-all those things. The funny thing is, one of the courses I'm looking forward to the most doesn't start until Winter Semester. It's one of my non-music elective courses (we have to have a certain number of electives). It fits wonderfully well into my schedule and is on a topic that I find rather interesting and want to learn more about-the Vietnam War. It's also a small course-only 15-20 students, and the students who take it will probably be harder working than in the history courses I've previously taken, because it comes with the requirement of 6 credit hours of history with grade of C or better to enroll. All told, I am looking forward to everything though.
Must leave now to get to my flute lesson!
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