Back at it. 18 years later. When I was 18 years old, I was fresh out of high school. I discovered so many things about myself from 15-18, and somewhere along that path after I graduated, I wanted to learn Chinese. I’d go to Chinatown in Manhattan and buy Japanese anime, then just walk around. There was a park by the Grand Street train station, and I would sit there and practice Chinese. I had a book called “Chinese in 10 minutes a day”, and I would practice with this book in Chinatown. Sometimes, I would call out of work and go on the weekday in the middle of the day, just to be somewhere different. At 18 years old, it was just exciting to be in a new place in another borough, learning something new. This was before I started playing DDR, but once I started playing, I stopped a lot of what I was doing and just focused on the new community of people and the game. But the arcade in Chinatown (Chinatown Fair) still allowed me to go to this place and experience the culture. That first year of playing DDR, I met quite a few people. I had just got out of a really long relationship, and the “world” was everything; it was all so exciting. A few months into me playing DDR, somewhat newly single, going to all of these places and meeting new people, my Mother had a heart attack. That point in my life changed. If I had to define a point in my life where things went from positive to not-so-positive, it was this point. Before my Mom had the heart attack, I was just a kid getting over heart break and playing a video game. After her heart attack, I had to in many ways grow up very fast. I know DDR was initially a coping mechanism for getting through heart break(18 years old and everything is sad, haha) but I think it turned into a coping mechanism for dealing with my Mom’s declining health. And I stopped a lot of things, including learning Chinese. It was always in the back of my mind though, sitting in that park, not a care in the world in the middle of the day. And here I am, 18 years later picking up where I left off. Some inspiration and some determination. But it reminds me of a good time in my life. I think we all deserve to embrace a time where we were happy. (at South Slope, Brooklyn) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0XA15KDB-MM81ObE9eP7cqD21rMEA5cgGyTnY0/?igshid=18mupa8ch4qqu