I’m a Farmer

When I was a kid I was obsessed with games. Everything I could grab—alone in my room, at friends’ houses, with random kids in the arcade. I was happy. Walking around as Link in Hyrule, eating mystery mushrooms as Mario, dragging that yellow electric mouse around as Ash. The best part was knowing I’d grown up in this weird window when games could fool us into thinking we were actually out there doing something important. Finding magic, saving the world, being someone.

Then it stopped. Games just weren’t fun anymore. What the hell happened to me? No boss could surprise me. No puzzle could move me. No story could touch me. I was getting older. It was devastating. Had I actually lost my imagination? That’s what scared me most as a kid—that growing up would steal it away.

I quit. Nintendo and I said goodbye. It was sad.

A few years later I moved to Berlin and met a girl. Not long after, I bought a DS, mostly to kill time on the U-Bahn. At first nothing happened. Then slowly something shifted. A spark. Then more. Suddenly I was a warrior again, a hero again, and yesterday on my birthday—a farmer. Growing cucumbers, finding a girlfriend in-game while I’d already found one in real life.

Thanks Nintendo. You brought back what I lost. That’s nice.