Recently we have seen the rapid re-invigoration of one particular nostalgia-inducing game; Minecraft. Recently Minecraft has seen a major boost in player activity, not to mention discussion about the game on several websites has skyrocketed. For me this was a rather strange occurrence; years ago I stopped playing Minecraft and decided to move on and grow as a person, leaving a part of my childhood still with the game, but as I go now into my Senior year of highschool, applying for colleges, becoming more responsible, and just growing up overall, I had a desire to dive back into the game. So I did, I found my old login buried somewhere, went onto the Mojang website and decided to re-download it. This is something relatively out of character for me, usually once I get tired of playing a game I uninstall it and leave it alone, letting the now-free space on my hard-drive to go to something new and exciting. But that isn’t how Minecraft works. Minecraft is a game of infinite exploration, creativity, and hundreds, if not thousands, of things to do in every session. And that isn’t me just hyping up the game, that’s how it was advertised, as an infinite journey of exploration, or an outlet for creativity. And that prophecy came true, in the former prime of Minecraft there were millions of players, and each one desired to live through their own desires to explore, or build, or escape or whatever they wanted to do. Minecraft was something truly special, because it really did feel infinite, and that’s the feeling that captured me when I opened up a new world and started playing. It all came back to me, the experience and the memories flooded into my head, as if I had just played the game the day before. Things seemed the same, some performance and graphics improvements, but you still punched a tree to start off with, and you still felt like anything was possible as you built a house to survive the nights. What I felt was like recapturing a feeling, something that I really couldn’t express with words. I’m not sure if it was a mixture of nostalgia, or wanting to return to a time before things were so complicated, but I really did feel something when I was playing the game. It was like looking back at a reflection of the child I was, and realizing how I had grown since then. It was remembering the people I met, the friends I had made, the times I had. It was like going back to when things were better, encapsulated into just one small amount of playtime. Say what you will about the game, bad graphics, boring game play, whatever you think is your opinion and I won’t hold it against you, but I see Minecraft as a representative of the good times I had. I could load back up an old save file and see what my 11 year old self decided would look the coolest if I made a house out of it. Now there are some great discussions, videos, and other articles about this topic, about how Minecraft has impacted their lives, and I’ve seen a few, that’s what made me want to write this, I wanted to try to encourage other people to do the same, to go back and try to find that little piece of our childhood that still resides in an old game made of blocks. I wanted to encourage people to look back on how they have grown, and if you’re reading this, then I would encourage you to do so. Whether it be reading some of those other articles, or just diving back into the game, take a moment, stop, and just remember the good times.