When I was younger, I was banned from electronics for two whole weeks straight
Punishment for “hacking” my friends animal jam account.
I was maybe 10 years old and I despised that punishment. What was I supposed to do for fun??
I built stories with my legos, taking pieces from mismatched sets and starting a family. I gave them personalities, jobs, and even made them go to war. And have sex??? 😥
I went outside, the cul-de-sac surrounded by fake bamboo, and made bows and arrows with sticks and twine. They broke, but I was still katniss for a short period of time.
It was during this two weeks of time where I made the best memories with my neighbors. About a week in, I had gained enough courage to gather up my friends. The kids who lived on my culdesac. The lower culdesac. I told them to bring their best nerf guns, we were going to war.
Marching up the unnecessarily steep road, we found ourselves staring head on at a set of houses we’d only heard of through legend.
A sector of our humble neighborhood that we were convinced wasn’t real, due to our parents insistence on us not going up there.
That day, I swallowed my fear and knocked on the doors of each house to invite the The Upper Cul-De-Sac Kids to have a nerf war with us.
To my absolute surprise, they did want to play with us.
I remember thinking to myself that night, at ten years old, “this has been the best week of my life! I don’t even miss animal jam”
But eventually my probation was over
and I could return to my grandpas computer