The History of Le Panda Day

3 Year Anniversary Special

The following was transcribed from live footage.

Transcriber ID: L3GNDARY_PR0F1L3_P1C

Date: April 27th, 2023

The camera pans to a rocking chair, rhythmically swaying back and forth. 

The girl seated on the chair sips slowly from the cup of tea in her hand, the steam curling up and escaping through an open window. Her eyes are closed, in complete peace. The silence is comfortable. 

Then it is broken when the girl speaks: 

"It's time." 

She sets the cup of tea down on the table beside the chair, and slowly stands up, as though her legs are made of stone. She turns her gaze to the window with a slight smile, though soon an almost lamenting and weary look crosses her features. 

"Three years," she murmurs. "That is certainly a long time."

She pulls out a small piece of paper that has been folded far too much from her pant pocket. She painstakingly, gently unfolds it. She lets out a laugh at the first line: 

Dearest Sunny,

If you are filming another dramatic opening to the special chapter, I will personally find you and resolve this issue myself, because clearly, you have not listened to my advice. You do not need something dramatic for these chapters, just keep it honest and real. That is what the people want. Thanks. 

"Oh, Zoey," the girl ruefully said with a sigh. "You never did understand. This is inevitable." 

Once again, she turned her head to look out the window. The camera switches angles to capture her features. 

"Here we go," she whispers. This time, her small smile was true. "It's Panda Time." 

🌿❉ ╤╤╤╤ ✿ ╤╤╤╤ ❉🌿

𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖞𝖊 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗 𝖞𝖊! 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖕𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖆 𝖕𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖘𝖘 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖙𝖍𝖘...

❝  three years ago today, we all collectively lost a small but necessary piece of our sanity. and gooood riddance. 

three years of le panda day. i remember when sunny & zoey came up with the idea because they (and others) were saddened to see a profile picture of an adolescent panda from kung fu panda 3 be replaced on my wattpad account.

jokes on the replacement. nobody remembers that one. le panda, however? national holiday in his name. i'd say he made his mark. 

of course, it wasn't just le panda. mochi soon came along. she was once originally a he that i used in my signoff on my randomness book. the community took him into their hands and said: we love this girl panda. let us put a bow on her and give her bamboo and make her emoji friends. 

so then the art poured in and people everywhere, a really great handful of people, were changing their profile pictures on the 27th of every month. MONTH. because every year wasn't enough. not for le panda.

i know our numbers have since dwindled, but the fond memories have not. i remember each and every one of you who graciously asked, "what even is this" and then changed your icon once you gained understanding. i remember the doodles and the message board notes and the private messages and the bajillion applications to have your name in the history of this grand holiday (seriously. you guys flocked over to that sign up book. they couldn't keep up over there).