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------And suddenly I'm randomly transported back into a memory of back when I was younger. It was around when I was in 5th grade elementary school. I was young and naive back then. But this memory takes place the day where we went to the Bronx Zoo for a field trip. It was my first time going to a zoo in my life so I was super excited in a way. I lived in Queens then so we took those yellow cheese buses. This memory explains why flamingos are my least favorite animal and, also why I'm not quite fond of the Bronx Zoo. Some of you who know me may know this story already but this shall be the first time I document it.

------There was this girl who I had a crush on, I think her name was Leslie or something. She was taller than me, and she had brown hair, pale skin. But I think the most prominent feature I remember about her was her teeth. I don't remember if they were buck teeth or if she had that gap between her front teeth. Its our flaws that makes us interesting and endearing though. I think what made me get a crush on her was when we had unplanned wore the same costume for that Halloween pizza party. We had on this pretty cool Disney fantasia costume, blue cone hat and red robes with only slight difference variations between ours. We never really interacted before that. But besides wearing similar Halloween costumes, I often remember her wearing windbreakers when the fashion trend was big puffy North Face jackets. We also had this matching windbreaker coat which I thought were pretty cool at the time.

------I had a crush on her so I wanted to spend that entire field trip with her. We sat on the yellow cheese bus together. We sat in front of the bus despite the fact that most of my friends sat in the back. When we arrived at the zoo everything was going well so far. Needless to say I was having a great time with her until we hit the flamingo area. I was trying to be cool I think and I was running my hand on the wooden railings when suddenly something touched my hand. It was green, mushy, and It almost looks like wasabi except it wasn't. It had a foul odor to it as well which lead me to assume at that time, that it was flamingo s**t. Now as I'm older though I'm not quite sure it was flamingo feces but rather baby vomit but nonetheless I was extremely mortified.

------So the thought processes at the time was to hide my hand into my windbreaker, and wrap my whole hand around it to contain the smell from radiating outward. I also went to the back of the group, farthest away from my crush as I didn't want her to notice what I was carrying. I didn't want to ask the teacher about my situation in fear of embarrassing myself further in front of the whole class that I had gotten a potential flamingo stool sample on my hand. Of course we were little children back then so I couldn't have strayed off the group to find the bathroom as our teacher decides on when we take the potty break. My whole day was ruined as I hadn't gotten to spend the rest of the field trip with my crush. The end of the trip on my way home. I threw out that windbreaker that we matching which made me sad at the time. When my mum asked where It had gone, I lied about losing it somewhere in the zoo. She bought me one of those North Face Jackets as a replacement which made me blend in the rest of the class. In a weird way I felt as if I had lost my identity by throwing away that jacket. I also felt as if I lost a small connection I had between her and I. Not that it matters now in the future though.

------But yeah that's the reason why I don't like flamingos. And also despite the multitudes of times I've been to the Bronx Zoo after the incident, I still hate going to that place. I guess first impressions really do matter, not just on people, but on places as well. Perhaps I'll do more entries such as this one, writing about my childhood and memories I had when I was really young, whether they were good or bad.

Anyways thanks for reading. This is Anikacy, signing off.