It's as simple as bunnies & llamas.

Blog Challenge: What's your favorite animal?

I get that question sometimes.
But it's almost never the same consecutive answer.

Bunnies.

Sheep.

Llamas.

Penguins.

Flamingos.

My choice has never stayed restricted to one animal.
But I guess they have some sort of sentimental value.

Let's start with flamingos.
First of all, the obvious, they're pink. Or pinkish. My favorite color as a child.
I remember the impact they had on me when I first visited Florida, to visit my dying grandmother.
"Look at how they can balance on leg, that's so awesome."
My grandmother, Miriam Lacanilao, was a beautiful woman. She would always take care of me as a child, always having the time to take care of me even though she had cancer.
Before she died, she gave me a beanie baby of a flamingo. I'm a little disappointed I cannot find it now.
I also remember Florida as the place where I met Ian Love, the boy with the earwax and the Texan accent. My first encounter with a Filipino-American boy whose family was close to mine. I would like to believe that that moment was when I had my weird fetish for Asian-Americans. I don't know why, but I remember when we used to hang out all the time and play Playstation and go to Disney World. I still remembered him when he visited California about 4-6 years later. Weird. We didn't even talk, but I remember everything so clearly. The weather... the smell. Is that why I choose to say flamingos? I don't know.

Next, penguins. They're cute, that's why I like them. Which.. also.. brings me back to Florida. I think I first saw penguins there too, at the zoo. And I had a doll called Chilly Willy from one of the theme parks in Florida. Ian once stole it, and I got mad at him for a day. But then again, I was always mean to that boy. :( It reminds me of how mean a person I was before my huge revelation in my junior high years. Moving on.

Bunnies. They're so cute. I have a giant stuffed animal of a bunny that's half my size. I got it from a raffle in my 5th grade class. That was the most fun year I remember in my elementary days. That's the year when I first discovered my venomous jealousy. And that opened my mind to crushing on younger guys. Alec Baird, you Japanese-American. I could not get over the fact that you liked her and not me. Thank God for change though. I love her now and not you. :)

Sheep. Often used in the Bible. I couldn't get over how cute and fluffy they were. Like I even loved that one Pokemon, Flaafy, because it was a SHEEP. I honestly wanted to ride one as a child. Screw horses, it's all about the sheep. I remember buying stuffed animal sheep in white, pink, and blue from the Christian Bookstore next to Chuck E. Cheese in Chino, near my old house. They had a little handle to wind them up and it has a lullaby tune of "Jesus Loves Me". We bought another blue one for my brother's funeral. Because I would not and could not give him the blue one that they were going give him before he was to be born. I had grown too attached to it and could not bring myself to bury it with him in his grave. I just couldn't. I can't remember why though. But I remember standing over his burial plot and tearing up, clutching the small lamb in the crook of my arm. I even remember what I wore that day. Black dress pants and an itchy, white longsleeved blouse my mother made me wear. Strange.

Llamas. Random right? Disgusting, slobbery, retarded looking creatures. But random, yes? I decided this would be my favorite animal in my middle school years, the changing point of my life thus far. It was random, and it made people laugh at the thought of how random it was. That was what I wanted to be. Llamas could care less of what people think of them. I wanted to be careless, independent, laid back. I was the shy girl in the corner, the one that didn't talk until people would talk to me. I wanted change. I wanted to be called awesome. I wanted to have an impact on people's life, just by the way I lived mine. When you're in a group of people, most likely a classroom setting, people go around telling their favorite animal. No one's going to remember the dog or cat that one person said. They're going to remember you making your weird facial expression that makes people laugh and your matching handmotions when you go "LLAMAAA!"
Exactly. I wanted to achieve that goal, that persona. That lovable person that would always be able to make people laugh just by the facial expression and manner of speaking. I embraced that personality, even though it wouldn't be the most popular choice to be.
It has made me the person I sought to become today.

So... those are my thoughts.
I hope I have successfully completed the challenge of writing about favorite animals.

I just couldn't narrow it down to one.