In the past week, I have been referred to as a ninja twice. This seems somewhat odd and foreign to me since I don’t know martial arts, I am not of Asian decent, nor do I wear black pajamas to work. I felt I needed to dispel this myth. I am not a ninja; however, the more I thought about this odd title of ninja that people have used to describe me I started to believe it myself. Below, I have listed a few details to support my claim to the ninja title.
I wear khaki all the time. Currently I spend most of my day in the ETF building at Space Camp. It has khaki colored walls. There are many forms of camouflage. Black pajamas are the camouflage of choice for the ninja we are familiar with in pop culture. Ninjas use covert methods to wage war on their enemy. I have been described as stealthy in my ninja-like movement around camp. I seem to pop up in the most random places. This movement is only concealed by my khaki pants.
Fear does not exist in a ninja! When faced with a snake, red wasp, or grizzly bear around camp I do not give into fear. Ok, we may not have grizzlies at camp but we have skunks and nutria. Nutrias are similar to the R.O.U.S.’s or rodents of unusual sizes. I have captured a few nutrias in my time and fended off snakes. Just the other day, I snatched a red wasp from the arm pit of an AC counselor. This feat of bravery helped start the ninja myth.
Rather than samurai swords, I carry freshly sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga pencils. Everyone knows that the pencil is mightier than the sword. When my ninja skills are weak, I carry two pencils with me. The #2 pencil is very powerful!
To conclude, these few examples are weak at best to support my claim as a ninja. I will need to face the facts that I am not a ninja. My khaki pants and Oakley sunglasses are not the uniform of a ninja. My quick reflexes around dangerous creatures are still not fast enough to make me a ninja. Finally, has anyone ever seen a pasty, red headed, Anglo-Saxon ninja? So truly, I am not a ninja!