How Serena Was Born...

Once upon a time...
(No, that sounds WAY TOO CLICHE)

…

In 2018, I was living out my last semester at Our Lady of the Lake University, about to graduate with a Master's degree in the Arts (English). And seeing that I didn't have much going for me--trying to find a job and not having any prospects--I had struggled to figure out what I was going to do with my life.

One day, while I was working on a homework assignment for Literary Translation (a class I was taking at the time, where you had to translate text from a foreign language into English), I took a trip down Memory-Lane by watching episodes of NickJr.'s Oobi on YouTube. The show follows a hand puppet named Oobi, who has a sister named Uma, a grandfather who they call "Grampu," and a best friend named Kako (played by Noel MacNeal, one of my puppeteer idols). I remember being amazed by the creativity and puppetry that went into that show--how it easy it was to create a puppet just by using your hand.

Then later that week, when class had ended for the night, I took a picture of my right hand in a "talking position."

And then the next day, I decided to add some features to the photo. So I opened up the "Paint" app on my computer, and I gave my hand eyes and some pigtails using a stylus. This turned out to be my concept art for Serena.

Now, for the name "Serena," I decided to give her that name, because that name is derived from the word serenity, which meant something along the lines of "being at peace"... which was something that I truly needed in my life. Serena was the care-free, childlike spirit that I wanted to be, not the young woman who made mistakes and wasn't a perfect adult... or daughter. In fact, as I began conceiving this idea, Serena had become like a daughter to me, because she was a part of me (mentally AND physically).

That was when I began wondering if the Oobi-inspired could be recreated so that I could bring Serena to life. So out of curiosity, I looked up if there were "Oobi eyes" for sale so that I could make my own Oobi-inspired hand puppet. I came across a brand from a company in Rhode Island (and I'll probably write a product review on it), because the original creator of the Oobi-eyes was reported to have discontinued back in 2013. Now this brand was surprisingly good, and I was able to fit my middle finger through the hole between the eyes.

After I tested out my Oobi-eyes, even posting pictures on social media--

--I decided to give my hand puppet some hair, just like in my concept art photo.

So I went to Walmart to buy some yarn- the Red Heart brand. Her brown hair was a "Coffee" brown, while her hair bows were a "Perfect Pink" pink. I made two pigtails into braids using three long pieces of the brown yarn, and I tied them together with pieces of the pink yarn. I then tied the pigtails onto the Oobi-eyes, and I was able to slip the eyes on with ease and make it seem like my hand puppet had hair, as shown here...

(and don't worry: I'll probably do a tutorial on adding "yarn-hair" to Oobi-eyes sometime in the future).

From there, everything was going well; but then reality had come back to sucker-punch me in the face. I remember sitting in my bed one night in the second week of May crying, because I didn't know where my life was going. I had no clue! I wasn't happy with my substitute teaching job; I wasn't thrilled to graduate from OLLU sooner than anticipated; and, as I've said, I was feeling the opposite of what serenity was supposed to be. I write about my mental and emotional struggles in my book Starving Artist: A Writer's Journey through Work, School, and... Adulting (2018).

I also wrote about how I had somehow found my way out of this hole that I was in. In my book, I mention Serena moving the covers to get my attention, and then showing me the books that I had bought from Amazon:
10-Minute Puppets (2010),

and Box! Castles, Kitchens, and Other Cardboard Creations for Kids (2013)

--both written by puppeteer Noel MacNeal.

Thank God for Serena that night, because that gave me back the spark to actually live again, even though I was soon going to live outside of school for the rest of my life. School was my life; and I wanted to stay in that environment in any way possible--as a student, as an employee--that was home.
(By the way, it was Serena who helped me move my tassel at the OLLU commencement ceremony on May 10, 2018, and she bowed her head to me as a sign of respect and congrats. This served as a reminder that I now had something to look forward to post-school.)

So nowadays, Serena has been living with me. And sometimes, her mom who we call "Mombo" (rhymes with "combo," when you think about it) would stop by and visit.

(From Left to Right: Serena, me, and Mombo)

Okay, how can one describe Mombo? Well, it's pretty straightforward: Mombo embodies everything about my own mother--from the long gray hair right down to her speech. Funny story: I had a Cherry Coke in a koozie, and Mombo strolls by and says "Oh, is that alcohol?"--like my own mom who knows that I would occasionally drink, Mombo knows it too-- and I was like "Get real! It's a Cherry Coke!" She gives me a "Mmm hmmmmmmm" ("Yeah right") and strolls off. Yeah, like Mom, Mombo will speak her mind.

So me, Serena, and Mombo are like this: Serena is the child; Mombo is the mother figure/critical one; and I'm... well, just me. I'd say we're one happy family. And I'm happy.

And I have you to thank, Serena.