Robin

Towards the end of the school year, I was envisioning how our section would look in the fall. Basically, whoever was joining our school was coming into a two-year-old section- and would therefore be a sort of noob while the three of us junior-and-up kids would still be cracking old jokes and reminiscing old times. It would obviously take a while for the newcomers to take root, if we got any at all. This past year, we only got one and he lasted half a semester basically.

I remember clearly my first day of Symphonic Winds. There were five of us trombones- William, who was only there for a semester before he finally did his student teaching; Jeffrey, the kind and yet take-charge guy who would have to take William's place as a sophomore and be the section leader; Austin, my dark friend who was my age and jumping into this crazy college world with me; and Mack, a sophomore with a great personality but who lacked on the playing ability scale (ugh I could rant about him for hours but that's for another post.) Anyway, as I took my place at the end of the row (on Bass Trombone woot) Mack, who Austin and I already knew from marching band, leaned over and introduced me to everybody. As he sat next to me, he also slowly explained how things worked in this band. He was kind of my mentor until I could get rooted and I couldn't wait until I was old enough to mentor the new kids.

The next year, I sort of got to mentor Eric and I enjoyed showing him the ropes, but he sadly didn't last. Therefore, at the end of the Spring 09 semester, I looked forward to whoever new kid would show up and have me mentor. Of course, I dreamed up a huge deal, picture-perfect scenario, but I hoped that it would mostly come true. Of course, this person I was thinking up had to find his way into the world of V. Richlin so I set off trying to find the perfect name for a new, shy kid from across the country coming into a college band for the first time. Finally, the name came to me.

First of all, I found the name Coulter on a website and really liked it. I didn't know how to pronounce it but soon learned. I was going to try to name one of the new trombone players Coulter but I just couldn't make it work. Then I had the perfect name. This new, shy kid finally had a first name. It was genius! It was Robin. A few quick sketchings later and Robin Coulter was born. He represents all young, new people going to a faraway school for the first time. Well, he did at the time... I tried so hard not to think ahead with him but it was too late. Stuff just kept popping up and he evolved away from where I had originally placed him very quickly.

Robin Seth Coulter is from Snowloch, Kalitonia. He is half-Raellian and has a very different story than most. His father is fully Raellian but his parents split and his father took his life, so he was adopted by his stepdad and gained a non-Raellian last name. His birthparents were from Raellia and wanted their son to have a Kiillaanian name, so they named him Seth. He became Seth Coulter. He lived and went to college in Laminkqa (on the west coast) and eventually became a cop. Seth's family was not very stable and was actually quite broken but Seth managed to do better for himself than most of the rest. Robin's mother, Maria, was from Snowloch and led a fairly ordinary life, moving to Laminkqa for college where she and Seth met.

They got married after college and after a while Seth got sick. He had aches and pains a lot and finally saw a doctor. He was diagnosed with cancer in his pancreas and liver, as well as 2 brain tumors. A week later, the couple found out they were expecting their first child. Times were stressful as Seth's family kind of disappeared from the scene. Even still, they were excited about their first child and, because of Seth's love for the book Robin Hood, decided to name their child Robin if he was a boy and Marian if she was a girl. Well, Robin Seth Coulter was born a few months later on April 28, 1991, and looked just like his father. They thought that they would only have 1 child, due to the circumstances, but they were very surprised to discover that they were expecting their second child. The chance for birth defects was high so the pregnancy was watched closely, but by a great miracle a healthy baby boy was born on May 10, 1992. They named him John Murphy- John for Little John and Murphy for Maria's maiden name.

Seth got sicker over the years and sadly lost his fight during a risky brain surgery that had a low chance of survival anyway. He died January 4, 1995. He was able to have some of his organs donated which saved the lives of three people. Robin and John were now fatherless, so their mother moved them back to her hometown of Snowloch where they lived in an apartment next to Maria's parents. As a single mom, Maria tried to give the best to her boys. She gate them everything she had and they were a happy family regardless of their hardships. However, around the year 2000, Maria too started to feel unwell and was diagnosed with MS. She refused medical care because she wanted to die and be with her husband, whom she loved dearly. Robin and John were by now beginning their teen years and were cared for by their grandparents and helped care for their sick mother.

Right before Robin graduated high school, on May 22, 2009, Robin's mother died, leaving him a brand new adult with no parents. Luckily for him, his mother taught him well and he had learned to be on his own from a young age. He followed her advice and followed his heart and sought to make the most of himself. He received a scholarship at a far away college and chose to accept. He was nervous, but felt it was a giant step in the right direction. Thus, he ended up at KU.

He moved out only a week after his graduation or less and had already found a small, quaint, and perfect apartment for himself. He also made early ties with a couple companies and businesses in the area and was able to get a job almost as soon as he arrived. His mother helped her kids preserve their Raellian heritage and he spoke the language well. He easily got a job at the local amusement park at a Raellain-themed shop where he could put his bilingual gift to work.

After this, things just started falling into place and I couldn't stop it from developing.

On his first day of work, he was being supervised and trained by the beautiful Ada-Renee Faring, who was his age and, turns out, was also a music major. She even played the same internet game that Robin played all the time. Even funnier, they lived in the same apartment complex. They were fast friends and as time went on and they spent their time together they began dating. During those first two summer months they were able to meet and befriend two more young students who were also music majors- and who were both foreign students: Elkari "Rihanu Cat" Darovani from Catarika and Soli Sotora from Iri Rani.

So... what started as a simple shy kid turned out not to be so. The way it looks, they'll be going into the school year engaged. o.O

Robin has been keeping a blog starting when he graduated, just like Eagle Rivers. I'll randomly post some of his posts. Here are a couple Robin facts:

1. He always always always wears an old, faded, worn, green sweatshirt that belonged to his father. It's his trademark and even in summer (it's not very hot in Snowloch) he is always wearing it.
2. He is a kind, upright, cleanshaven kind of guy. His hair (used to have) a proper side part, but he has decided to grow it out as he begins this new step in life.
3. He rides a longboard and carries a briefcase. No clue how long that will last but we'll see.
4. He is fairly short and small, at 5'6''. His brother is 6'2'' and is very sturdy and muscular.
5. Robin, Ada-Renee, John, and Ansel (Ada's brother) all play Runescape.
6. One of the first things Robin did when he moved into his apartment was get a dog and a cat to keep him company (as it was a single). He now has a yorkie named Chandler and a fluffy cat named Milton.
7. Robin has never lived in a house and desperately wants to.
8. Robin is about to take a huge leap and propose to Ada.