nostalgia is bittersweet
Not too long ago, I was idly browsing YouTube looking for a video to watch when I spotted a video titled "Littleroot Town". I clicked on it and was immediately hit with a massive wave of nostalgia, the person in the video was playing a beautiful acoustic rendition of the Littleroot Town theme song. To be honest, it made me tear up instantly.
Pokémon Emerald was the single most influential game of my childhood, being my first Pokémon game. I remember bringing my GameBoy Advanced SP everywhere I went, constantly playing because it was so damn fun. I remember having to angle the GameBoy at a weird angle because the screen backlight wasn't that great. I still remember the startup jingle after all these years. Time used to pass like a dream because I had no other responsibilities other than homework.
I really miss those days when the most stressful thing in my life was deciding whether I should use a Master Ball to catch Rayquaza or not. Or picking a starter Pokémon to save Professor Birch from a wild Poochyena.
Now I'm just a regular adult working a 9-5 job, whose free time is mostly spent on making sure I'm not physically, mentally or financially impaired in 30 years time.
I will never actually get back to that period in my youth, but whenever I listen to the Littleroot Town theme, I'm back to when I was 11 years old again, playing Pokémon Emerald on a warm afternoon after finishing my homework. Everything is simple, and problems rare.
Nostalgia is a bittersweet feeling.
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