How many iTunes gift cards did I plow through? Buying AP7s, something like $6000 each, after loading my gift card code into my iTouch. Entering my house for the first time, buying furniture (got a grand piano, some nice carpets) and fencing off sections in the room, where I'd place as many bullets of ammo as I could. Saving up enough seashells to buy the M4, when it was 10x cheaper, only to find out my friend got one from a crab. Chasing turkeys for the first time, getting those 5 dmg blue water guns in the ocean, finally obtaining some wacky egg launcher that I loved setting people on fire with, buying ice skates, watching sK make another gang and take over all the zones, some leaders named Vanderwoodsen who were always online... gosh, I wished I remembered more.
Staying up countless school nights, with my iTouch under my blanket, rushing Lethal zone with a couple of friends, getting base time for our small gang, one minute at a time, only to run out of battery at 2 am. A school day ritual. Ah yes, back in 2010, the middle school years. Throwing those red/green/blue bombs everywhere, failing at all the event coin events, killing people when they lagged out, getting **** on by BAR users in spar, trying to keep my spar ratio slightly above 1:1, praising myself for staying on the leaderboards in kills on GameCenter (wtf was I proud of?).
I have 10 minutes before I have a Linear Algebra lecture. I'm sitting in my dorm with my roomates, freshman year of college -- for many a new journey, possibly redemption from their cringy past or maybe a continuation of academic success. Things have been going by quickly, and I needed to take a step back.
It's so crazy sitting here, so many years later and recalling my past self. It's a hard thing, to willingly conjure up the past, for many people, accepting past mistakes, failures, and memories worth forgetting. It's not that hard for me. There were a lot of good memories, a gold mine being time spent on this game.
It's hard to wrap my mind around it. Was that kid, the silly kid who called himself "iNoob" dressed up as a naked default character with a scarf while spamming throwing icicles, really me?
Technically, my title should say "loved," since I haven't played Era in nearly 6 years. But as I sit here, taking this huge nostalgia hit with a few minutes left, there's one thing that reminds me of who I was more than anything -- Graal Era. Pretty cheesy, maybe cringy as hell, but I'm proud. Those precious memories, that absorption and addiction, that I still remember today and would repeat if I had the chance to start over. Something about rpg's, something about being absorbed in another world. Many would say to me that Graal was a distraction from the real world, and at that time it probably was. But I believe, as I sit here 8 years later since I started playing and reminiscing, that those feelings were real. Those memories were so strong that when I think of my past, nostalgia of Graal flows through me. I love Graal.
Gotta run to class now.
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