“Weeeeeeeeeeee!” Pippi slid down the banister of the escalator on her way down to baggage claim, while Annika and Tommy were fast-walking but mostly running from excitement. They were so happy to have landed in Boston after a long flight, and were ready for the journey that lay ahead of them.
Pippi grabbed everyone’s luggage and carried them like a pizza man would carry pizza boxes, or a waiter would carry plates – with no effort and high over her head so all Tommy and Annika could see as they walked outside was their luggage floating over the crowd of people staring into their phones and walking with their heads down to their next destination.
Old Man the horse had arrived on the cargo flight just a few minutes later, and the three friends and all of their luggage rode into the city whistling and excited. Tommy was the first to be dropped off, and as Annika shed a few tears for her brother, she waved goodbye and rode off with Pippi west of the city.
Only approximately thirteen miles away from the city, the two girls and horse and Mr. Nilsson stumbled across a small town, where the streets were lined with the most beautiful lampposts and a brick tower lay in the distance as they looked to their left.
“Pippi, we’re here!,” shouted Annika and she almost fell backwards off of Old Man in her excitement. Riding up to the very modern looking building, Pippi exclaimed, “This building looks like someone stronger than me just picked it up and plopped it in the middle of this campus! It doesn’t match with anything!”
“Oh Pippi, you know that there isn’t anyone as strong as you,” replied Annika. Pippi cartwheeled off of Old Man and helped Annika onto the ground, unloaded the suitcases and carried them up the small hill to their assigned dormitory.
As they walked down the hallway in their new dorm, Pippi looked into an open door and a girl was hunched over a desk, scribbling furiously at a piece of paper. The light from her single lamp cast a shadow across the paper, and Pippi wondered to herself first of all, what she could possibly be working on since it was the weekend, and also, how she could see with the large shadow of her head covering most of the paper.
Walking into her new room, Pippi put down the suitcases and started jumping and doing flips on the bed, while Mr. Nilsson climbed the pipes in the corner of the room and perched himself in a little L-shaped nook laughing. Another student heard the noise coming from the room and made herself at home, entered the room, and with her hands on her hips said, “Well, now you don’t look much like a Wendy, do ya?” Annika walked in shortly afterwards and cautioned Pippi to be careful to not hit her head on the ceiling, and to help her unpack.
“Actually, my name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim’s Daughter Longstocking, but you can call me Pippi! This is my friend Annika.”
“Oh, my name is Zhang Wei, but you can call me Julie.” Annika introduced herself, Julie left the room, and both girls continued unpacking. Pippi was supposed to be helping her but instead, she was trying on her best dress and clean stockings to be ready for a meeting with her coach in a few minutes.
Pippi walked into the coach’s office, and he stood up to greet her.
“Welcome! You must be Pippilotta. I must say, you’re shorter and much skinnier than expected! Especially for someone who can lift as much as you can!”
There was a silence in the room. Pippi was standing straight as a board, saluting her coach. You see, growing up on a pirate ship where her father was the captain, she had learned the importance of patience and waiting to speak until it was your turn.
“Permission to speak, sir?”
“Oh, Pippilotta-“
“Please, sir, call me Pippi!”
“Well, uh, Pippi, please don’t call me “sir,” but you can call me “Coach.”’
“Ok coach, so what can I do for ya?,” asked Pippi as she sat down, and kicked her feet on the desk in front of her.
“What do you plan on majoring in? Don’t all of you always have a five-year plan?”
Pippi just shook her head. “No, coach, I think of plans the same way I think of the wind on my father’s pirate ship. It’ll guide me, but the steering is the most important part!”
Coach muttered as he continued to ask questions.
“So Pippi, do you plan on studying abroad? What do you want to do when you graduate? When are you applying to medical school?”
“Oh coach, I don’t have any answers yet. I’m still thinking about what I want to eat for lunch. What’s good around here?”
“The dining hall, Pippi. Get used to it. I’ll see you later, enjoy your orientation.”
Pippi walked out wondering why the coach had so many questions, almost as if she needed to know all the answers! Attending school is supposed to give you more answers, not more questions, right? Pippi shook her head as she walked towards her first orientation meeting.
“My dad is the captain of a ship and my momma is up in Heaven,” said Pippi to an inquisitive classmate who came up to talk to her.
“Oh, so you’re one of those that owns a fancy yacht and you went to prep school? I couldn’t have guessed from your lack of pearls and nice attire.”
“Oh, you like my dress?,” asked Pippi. “I made it myself!”
“Wow, that’s so hipster.”
Pippi chuckled. She made a mental note to check out the hipster club when she was finally settled into school. Since she had won a hula hoop contest in Hawaii when she was a young girl, she thought she would be good at stirring her hips. That’s definitely what a hipster was: someone who was part of a club where they moved their hips in circles while making their own clothes. Seemed difficult, but Pippi moved on to another conversation.
In a high pitched, nasally voice, a girl skipped over and asked “SO, were you student body president in high school? I’ve talked to so many girls who were top 10 in their class, it’s crazy!!”
Since Annika was standing next to Pippi, and Pippi didn’t know what to respond since she had never been class president, or wasn’t top 10 of her class, she let Annika respond. Annika happened to be class president with Tommy, and had graduated with straight A’s.
When the girls started talking about grades, Pippi interjected, “Why do you think they stopped after F, huh? How do you think E, F, G, H, I, J, K, and all the way down until Z, feel?”
“Oh Pippi, that’s silly.”
Pippi didn’t think it was so silly. She had seen how all the girls she had met up until now were very studious, well-prepared, well-dressed, perfectionists, grade-conscious, type-A, overachievers, planners, determined, go-getters, and the list goes on.
“Annika, I don’t think I belong here. I don’t think I’m enough like these girls.”
“What, you mean, not Wendy enough?”
“Wendy?,” replied Pippi quickly.
“Yeah! Wendy! She’s like the “typical” student here.”
“My papa told me to never be ordinary. It takes away the fun of life! I mean, if I were just like everybody else, then I wouldn’t be me! And that would be boring.”
“Oh Pippi, but we are all a little Wendy. That’s why we’re here. But you’re the best Wendy of all, because you’re Pippi first. You’re spunky, loving, caring, determined, self-resilient, generous, kind, funny, and free-spirited. But, you also work hard, study a ton, and have dreams for your future.”
Pippi wasn’t fully convinced. What she did know, is that she wanted to learn to be more studious, but not to an extreme. She wanted to have a successful future, but she wanted to define success her own way. She wanted to follow her passions, and do what Pippi loves. In the end, for Pippi, it didn’t matter about the grades, or the sports, or the five year plan, but what mattered were the people around her that cared about her, and supported her, and that she loved. She was just one big ship sailing across the Pacific waiting for the wind and current of life to guide her.