Jack

I’ve recently gotten an initiative to write memories of people in my life and surely the amount of content is too vast to sort through even on 2x. The only time we’ve been apart has seemingly been when you went off to Miami and the old Urbana Champaign. When I thought about what I would record, I wanted to focus on our childhood with a now, at least little more, refined perspective. So this is that.

It’s pretty hard to remember what was the first memory. I get a bit mixed up with stories that people repeat over and over like there was only 10 good things that happened in our lives. The cookie story which ends in me hitting you only lives in the bucket of stories that were told about me, but I sure do remember playing video games.

Grandma’s basement / kitchen 

I remember we got that sonic and tails game and remember there was a save that started at level 8 or something crazy. I think I accidentally deleted that, bad luck. I was almost always tails though because you admittedly were (are?) better at picking up and playing most video games. I enjoyed my time as tails though, less responsibility.

I also was recently listening to the toe jam and earl soundtrack. I was thinking how did we figure out how to get to the secret island? You had to get rocket shoes and then fall down to the first level and then boost all the way to the top right of the map. No way we figured that out by ourselves. We must have been shown by Alex or someone, right? That game was fun though. We played the first rogue-like of our friends, I bet!

The other game i remember for the saga was some weird 2 player dungeon crawler. Maybe it was a rogue like as well. I remember picking up power ups or something and i always wanted to play it but you didn’t. There was also a game I barely remember where it was top down and seemed like Zelda or something. There was a level with a beach and some palm trees and some grass that maybe had monsters in it? I’ll look up these if I remember. 

Shining force

Echo the dolphin

Street fighter

Dad’s house

Aladdin

That weird Harry Potter game

Xbox

Gauntlet dark legacy

Halo

Fusion frenzy with Steph and Stephen

Fable getting the shield for those big combos

GameCube

Mario kart double dash where i again preferred to be the secondary do less character since i was worse

Mom’s basement

Nintendo 64

Donkey Kong 64, playing the campaign and multiplayer

Star fox 64

(It was at this point where i realized we’ve played an insane amount of video games together)

Dreamcast

Sonic adventure

Altered beast, i remember we got this at my birthday? We had people over in the foyer playing on the TV.

GameCube

There was some star fox game that i barely remember

Xbox 360

Halo 2 with the LAN parties at Alex’s house and logan’s house

Halo 3 getting to level 46 I think in doubles.

Fable - 

Fable 2 - huge mess trying to run the game for like hours because our xbox was bad

Fable 3 - i don’t remember playing much but i know it was bad

COD4

COD MW 2

Halo wars and the transformation to red faction gurella (sorry about that)

Brian’s house

Halo 3

Call of duty 4

Rock band

I was thinking about this recently, there were two memories of playing video games where you and I were at the mercy of other people playing. The one time we had the family reunion with the family in south ohio. They had the pond, the big blow up things, and a nice house. We were in their basement watching them play some game, and they weren’t as good as us, but I don’t think they ever shared. The other time I remember was when we went over to dale and dawn’s house and hazily and Kelsey were playing something on their computer and they didn’t share. What the heck is that all about.

Back on the return flight home, i am not sure if it’s sufficient to end there or if i should continue to press into the history of our life to further compile this list. As you might have been able to guess, I am leaning towards the former. 

I’ve been able to appreciate many memories that you’ve made possible.

I have been able to realize how impressive you had been putting up with me fighting you, pinching, twisting your arm and generally being mean. I realize this has had negative effects, and all i can do now is hope I hadn’t done too much negative. I can also try to impress on you how thankful I am and can only imagine I’ll be more thankful the older I get. Having you hold my hand through growing up, showing me selfless kindness, and all the rest; has silently and positively changed my character. 

Feel free to have this key mean anything you want, but if you want my opinion, I’d like it to be a reminder of the great person you are and have become. All of the positivity you’ve shared and continue to share to the world. And if that’s too grandiose, i know for a fact it can represent the major positive affect you’ve had on at least one person. 

🪔