I’m sure at one point or another, especially if you have already been through college, there were times that you had to make ends meet or make room for other things. It never feels good when you must or when you are forced to let go of something you enjoy, but the world keeps turning, and it is important that you do as well.

It was 1997, and the Nintendo 64 had come out a year prior. I had wanted to get one for awhile, and I had been saving along with my brothers. The day came where I asked my parents, and they said that they would discuss it with us later after they had talked. What I wasn’t prepared for is the terms in which my parents imposed, if in fact we were to get an N64. Their terms were that if we were to get the N64, we would need to sell one of our other console–whether it be the Nintendo Entertainment System or the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. We thought about it for a little while, but as kids, we just wanted to play the new thing, so we boxed up 50 NES titles, the cool top loader NES, and our original NES, with all the game peripherals and sold it to our cousins for 50 US dollars. It wasn’t until high school 4 years later that I really felt the pain of that transaction, and I have never been able to amass the list of games to this day, due to price and availability. But I also look at the fact that I got to experience my favorite game of all time, Zelda: Ocarina of Time because of it.

The other time I had to depart with something I really enjoyed was in college. I had the gold, The Legend of Zelda edition, Nintendo DS lite. This was given to me as a gift from a friend at Toys R Us one Christmas. I played this everywhere, chatted with the communication app in the movie theater with friends, had Mario Party DS faceoffs–I even played this at the bar a few times. When the times got tough, I had to start selling games and other items, and eventually, the time had come that I needed to sell my DS lite. I packaged it up and sent it out, feeling just as sad, if not more, then when I departed with my NES. I got 123 US dollars for it and paid my rent that month. It made me realize that I wanted to work harder and improve myself so I would not have to ever sell the things that I enjoyed in my life–a great example of games teaching me life lessons once again.

Sometimes in life you will have to let go or something is taken away. You can take those experiences and use them in whatever purpose you feel is important. Just remember to always put yourself and the people that you care for or that depend on you first because it is truly what makes life special and worth living for.

Have you had to let go of something in your life that you wished you still had? Was it a game, a console, or something deeper? Gaming is about having fun, making memories, and learning, so make sure you grow as a person from those experiences. Please let me know your departure stories.

• In loving memory of my NES and all the gaming memories that went with it and to my DS Lite, I hope you had just as many awesome adventures with your new owner as we had.

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