Login

***BadWolf*** · 10-24-2018, 03:07 PM

Legal Disclaimer: My first article, be nice. Was going to be longer but I got bored. Put in pictures to break up the text. Have fun! Thanks for reading!

The Long Story of Mika Mayfield

This is the story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down… wait a minute, that is the wrong story. Let me see, ahh yes. It is the year two thousand. A great time, for you millennials I will give you some nostalgia, and for you young ones you are about to learn about an iconic decade. Many things that were popular in the early glitter filled 2000’s died out fast but left a lasting imprint. This included: crunchy hair, Destinys Child, anything hot pink, Myspace, the original Ipod, Donnie Darko, and my favorite Britney Spears.

Anyways, now that you understand the time frame let me introduce my parents. My mother’s name was Sofia Scarabino. Yes, I said was, but I will get to that later. My Fathers name is Giovanni Scarabino. They were young and in love. They were living in Pianopoli, Italy. Located in the Catanzaro province in the region of Calabria. It is a tiny town with just a little over two thousand people.

My dad was a pasta maker and had his own shop in the center of town, we lived in the upstairs. Once my mom became pregnant it was her job to stay at home. The town was set in the old ways even though it was the turn of the century. My mother cleaned and cooked while my father worked and paid bills.

That brings us to early May. May third to be exact. It’s a nice 74 degrees Fahrenheit outside as the sun is shining brightly. My mother was in her garden, she had many gorgeous flowers. Most of them some shade of purple. Her favorites were the Oleanders, Bougainvillea, Jasmine, Crocus, Cyclamen, Bluebell, Violets, and Periwinkles. I know that is a lot, but she was never the best at picking favorites. She had, out by the front door, a smaller garden which included Lilies and Roses. This was also the shop front, so it helped curb appeal tremendously. It was also because she had a lot of pride for Italy. The lily and rose were, and still are the national flowers of Italy. The lily with its symbolic meaning of purity and refined beauty. Meaning can also be interpreted depending on the color and type. Yellow lily is for joy, orange is for passion, white for chastity.

It is around one in the afternoon at this point and my mother starts to go into labor, appalled that she is dirty from gardening she wobbles inside to clean her hands and face. My mother was a symbol of strength and beauty but also very calm. The thought terrified her that she might be viewed as weak or dirty. Thankfully we lived in the same building as the shop and her garden was on the roof, this meant all she had to do was to go downstairs, a task she hated with a passion since she could not see her feet anymore. That was a struggle, but she finally made it. My father at that point was in full panic. You never know what to do with the first born. It did not take him long to close shop and call an ambulance. They didn’t own a car with it being a small town, they could just walk everywhere. Needles to say, I was born at six o’clock that evening on the third of May at the turn of the century two thousand.

Primary school was a good time. School in Italy is different then here in the states. In Italy kids start elementary/Primary school at 6 years old. Mornings seem to start later too. We would all get up at 7:15 every morning. My mother would always have a cake, or some muffins made for breakfast, but often I would prefer to eat bread with butter and jam or cereal with fruit. There was always freshly squeezed orange juice on the table ready for me in the morning. Was definitely a way to start off the day right. School started at 7:55 and ended three days a week at 4:30pm and two days at 12:30pm. It left so much time in the afternoons for activities. I took dance every Tuesday and Thursday and that left Monday and Friday for ice skating. At school we learned English as a second language, it was not proficient, but it was enough to understand it. This helped a lot in my life later. On long days I usually ate in the cafeteria at school, but sometimes I would prefer to come home for a quick bite to eat. The menu was varied, it could be a pasta, meat with vegetables and sometimes even a salad with many ingredients or just a sandwich. I always had a bed time, during the school year the lights have to be out between 8 and 8:30pm. We still had a summer break, I would be on vacation from mid-June to mid-September. Summers were very eventful. First, we would go to the sea for at least three weeks every summer. Then we had day camps on and off for a few weeks and the last month we would stay at our house in the countryside. While there we always try and find a few days to go and discover a new city or place.

This is when we moved. Right before middle school. My parents up and moved to upstate New York. We lived in Buffalo for a while and that is really when I made the choice to switch from figure skating to ice hockey. This was also when I quitted ballet. I went to sign up for figure skating lessons at the local rink and when I was there I heard a lot of noise, I asked what was going on and they said hockey. I explained to the lady in the office how I didn’t know what that was, and she walked me to the rink. It was absolutely invigorating. At that moment I turned to her and asked if they had hockey lessons. I was on my first team in a week. I knew instantly that I made the right choice.

School dragged on, I liked most of it but hated my weak English. I hated reading and any class that involved reading or writing. My parents only spoke Italian at home and I finally started becoming fluent in English around high school. My friends found this impressive, but they didn’t see the struggle. I would find myself investing a lot of time into math because I felt like it was the only thing I was good at. It was the only classes I could pass. I was even on the math team.

My mother started getting sick my freshman year. She got diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It was Anaplastic carcinoma thyroid cancer, very aggressive. The symptoms start slow, she first noticed a lump or nodule in her neck, a few days later she had difficulty swallowing food and pills, that escalated to pressure and shortness of breath when she would lie down on her back. This all happened in a couple weeks. The doctor gave her a month to live, and that was being generous. She passed away In April my ninth-grade year. I slipped into a deep depression when that happened. That summer was a blur. I invested everything into hockey and school, high school was gone in the blink of an eye. When I was on the ice, I didn’t have to think about the negatives in my life. It was always positive.

I went to the University at Buffalo to study math on a hockey scholarship. My days and nights turned to hockey and next thing I knew I was waiting for an SMJHL draft.

(1300 words on WD - 2x payout eligible)

StamkosFan · 10-24-2018, 03:31 PM

Nice article, damn some heavy stuff at the end man Sad

TML99 · 10-24-2018, 04:02 PM

The dark text is a bit hard to read on the Dark theme fyi!

but great read none the less

***BadWolf*** · 10-24-2018, 04:24 PM

10-24-2018, 03:31 PMStamkosFan Wrote: Nice article, damn some heavy stuff at the end man

Thanks! Was planning on it being longer but I hate writing lol

***BadWolf*** · 10-24-2018, 04:25 PM

10-24-2018, 04:02 PMTML99 Wrote: The dark text is a bit hard to read on the Dark theme fyi!

but great read none the less

My bad, I didn’t know it did that. I copied it over from Word.

Mayuu · 10-24-2018, 04:35 PM

10-24-2018, 04:25 PMBadWolf Wrote:
10-24-2018, 04:02 PMTML99 Wrote: The dark text is a bit hard to read on the Dark theme fyi!

but great read none the less

My bad, I didn’t know it did that. I copied it over from Word.

Happens all the time, use the little button on the top right (looks like a document) to use the "view source" and you can copy text right over without getting formatting issues! Smile

RETIRED

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us