A Love for the Ages

In spring of 2021, I was talking to my friend Marque.  He told me about a video game he thought I'd like, called Animal Crossing New Horizons.  I humored him throughout the conversation, but had no intention of playing it because I'm not a video game person.

As a kid, my brother and I spent countless hours playing games like Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Country, and we always had a fun time.  But I never found a game that felt worth my time, or felt in line with my values.  I've always been self motivated, creative, compassionate, quiet.  Video games were always the complete opposite: fast, loud time wasters with a focus on hurting and killing animals, people, zombies, etc.

So I could tell Marque that I checked out the game and it wasn't for me, I watched a trailer for Animal Crossing New Horizons.  30 seconds into the video, I hit pause, ordered a Nintendo Switch and a copy of the game, and then waited impatiently for a week for it to arrive.

It turns out that ACNH is the perfect game for me and I can't believe I almost didn't even give it a chance.  There's no shooting, or hunting, it's quiet and slow, I get to be best friends with animals, we live together on a quiet island.  There's no story or quests, other than the beginning tutorial phase.  It's mostly a design game (with endless potential for creativity), only a slight grind (which I kind of like), and most of all, my island is a lovely place to escape to.  

It's now almost 5 years later and I'm just as obsessed as I was on that first day.  I've designed so many islands, and I loved building them all.  I thought it would be fun to document my favorite islands and builds here on this blog, where I can capture more than just photos.  I have a lot of island lore to share, lots of memories, creative challenges, a little bit of sadness, and some plain old good times.

These photos are from my very first day on my very first island: Fun Island (named after the 1980's inflatable raft my family had when I was growing up...it was, indeed, fun).  I can't wait to look back on these beginning days, when things were simple and I was experiencing it all for the first time.

Good night new friends!  I look forward to all the adventures in our future!