The Ninja Turtle and how it got me through the summer

The Ninja Turtle

This summer has been long and memorable, but unlike most summers, it’s been reeeal long. Like too long, like I’ve soaked up each moment of each day and to be quite honest, I’m tired of summer. Wow, its weird to say that, but almost therapeutic at the same time.

At times this summer has been incredibly fun, other times it was a painfully broke struggle. I was jobless for too long, and thus, searching for employment becomes my new day-today activity. Something I never get used to, but always seem to find myself doing in the dead of summer, exactly when the economy seems to gather all proprietors together, and agree to not hire anyone for at least a month.

So there have been some very long and achingly slow days this memorable summer, and as it nears its end and I look back, there was really just one thing that got me through those days: Ninja Turtle.

Did I find a cool Ninja Turtle toy/game/show to keep me occupied? No, although that’s a good guess because I used all of the above in my youth. Ninja Turtle is the name of the long board that has cruised me through a lagging summer quite smoothly. Ninja Turtle was actually not mine originally; I had borrowed it from Keith who had gotten it from Johnny D a few months earlier. But Johnny D had moved back home and already had a good collection of boards, so I don’t think he minded us enjoying ourselves with it, plus he’s a good guy. And Keith used Ninja Turtle when he wanted to, but I was the one who skated daily, so I kind of took ownership of it. That’s enough of an explanation to keep me happy so I don’t concern myself with it, but I see I have digressed.

Ninja Turtle has brought me happiness; every time I realize the day is over half gone and I have yet to leave my room, it provides the perfect escape for me, I just throw some headphones on and mob to my favorite jams all day. Usually NJ (as I’ll now be referring to it) serves as my transportation to and from the school gym just down the street at Cal State Fullerton. NJ makes me want to go work out, how can I get mad at that?

The importance of NJ to my summer became incredibly evident when I hit the low point of my summer: I had recently been let go from my job in Down Town Fullerton, and I had began losing things/having things get stolen. Within the very week of my pink slip reception, I lost my new digital camera and my prized skate board; Ninja Turtle (NJ). I lived nearly two weeks without Ninja Turtle, and it killed me inside. Was I going to walk to the gym? I hate doing that. What’s my escape now? I always wanted to get out and yet didn’t have anything to make me want to go anywhere. It was agonizing.

Finally, one day I found my board returned to the bottom of the stairs. The ass hole that had not respected my property and stole it had the decency to return it after he was done with it… ass hole.

Now that NJ is back I will never take it for granted again. I actually hadn’t even named the board Ninja Turtle until today when I took it for a tour around CSUF. I had always thought it resembled a turtle with its ovular brown deck which sat on top of green wheels and fish-skin patterned belly. So then all I did is add ‘Ninja’ to the front of it, and it totally worked!

My ride around the school today was actually probably the one most therapeutic things I’ve done in a long while. As I rolled around each part of the campus I’ve attended for the past four years, I reflected on what each segment of the school reminded me of. From memories of girls I’ve flirted with in certain classes as I passed each building, to the battles I had in every sport on the intramural fields, to the recollection of times kicking it on campus as I passed the TSU, which helped me conjure all kinds of unforgettable personalities. Each part of the school brought back some sort of memory.

Then, after rolling through each and every spot on my campus, I reached the heart of Fullerton and came up with a quote that seemed so fitting for me, you could call it an epiphany. I hopped off Ninja T, and decided to save it as a note in my phone, just so I could remember it word for word just as I had originally thought it.

“I love my life, and I just want to hold myself here forever. But life moves fast and I got a shot at being something if I keep up.”

Fittingly enough, the song that had randomly played on my trusty MP3 player (the other half of the team that builds my happiness) was “I’ll be here awhile” by 311. I looked around at the University that has been my home the past 4 years, and smiled.

I’m where I want to be, and when I move on I know I’ll still be where I want to be. Nothing brings me piece of mind like Ninja Turtle, and for that I write this ode for you; the exhilarating wheels of my youth.