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Andrei

Lowell High School, Lowell, Massachusetts

When I was a kid, on my 6th birthday, my parents took me to a store and gave me the best gift I had ever had. I remember arriving at the store and feeling very excited because the store was full of video games. My friend had a video game and sometimes I slept in his house and we played games together.

That day my parents gave me a Playstation 2. I was euphoric with the gift, I hugged my parents and couldn’t stop smiling. I always wanted a PlayStation starting when my friend invited me to play at his house when I was five years old. My friend and I were always playing together, we played until we fell asleep. We played different games: Crash Bandicoot, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z. I was very scared of playing horror games, but I loved watching him play. He always did well in everything and wasn't afraid of anything.

But, when I turned nine years old, I remember that my parents wanted to move to another state. It was a calmer place and away from the city. We moved to a really nice farm. I was really excited because it was where my grandparents lived. When we moved, driving by car, I held the Playstation the entire trip. I had a fear of loss.

When we moved I had to say goodbye to my friends and that was very difficult, I missed them a lot. But when I arrived in my new city I ended up making new friends, this helped me ease the feeling of missing my old friends.

Unfortunately, when you start to grow up, you learn that nothing is forever. When I was twelve years old, I was playing at home, when my younger brother stepped on my Playstation controller cord, tripped, and dropped the PlayStation. I was sitting on the floor so I was able to make sure my brother did not hit his head on the floor, but my PlayStation crashed.

At that moment, in disbelief, I blamed my brother for breaking my video game. At the moment I yelled and even felt like hitting him, but my mother was in the room and stopped me. But of course my crying was inevitable. I felt sadness, pain for losing something I believed was so important.

Now a few years after I had lost what I thought I liked most, I have come to realize that all the moments I remembered loving playing video games, it wasn't because of the video games themselves, but it was the joy  of the memories of spending time I shared with people I really loved. Memories with my cousins, friends, parents, were important because I was with them and not because I had a Playstation. The Playstation was just an object, but it also reminded me of them. Maybe a fear of losing these memories or people because I no longer had this video game made me suffer so much for losing it. But in the end it was all part of me and even without this symbol I can remember all those moments.

As an outcome of this journey of self, I believe that there was a great development of the person I was, before just a child who cared about toys and didn't think anything would be better, but now over time I have grown and learned how other things are also important and fleeting and should be made the most of. I thank my parents for giving me something so valuable and sentimental, that I was able to use to make more friendships and become a better person.

© Andrei. All rights reserved. If you are interested in quoting this story, contact the national team and we can put you in touch with the author’s teacher.

    Tags:

  • Family
  • Friendship and Kindness