This year I took the trip of a lifetime. To see my first (and probably only) total solar eclipse. Never experienced before … not ever to experience again.
It was also my first real visit to Texas, and seeing other parts of the country I’d never been through.
It wasn’t an immersively long trip, nor was it luxurious, or even comfortable. I did it with a very limited budget by train, sleeping in coach seats for X nights.
Travel isn’t something I have money for these days, so there were a lot of factors making this an extraordinary experience i wanted to be fully present for.
I went on this trip with my phones, of course. Having my phones also means I went on this trip with all of the Match3 puzzle games I’m addicted to fully in hand. But I intended to abstain grow from playing all my fave games other than Wordle while on this once-in-a-lifetime trip.
For the most part I did abstain from playing games on my phone while I was on this trip I’ll never go on again. But I also learned a lot from recognizing it was okay to crack those games out as the trip wore on and I became completely sick and exhausted. At that point I was just trting to survive the journey from one hour to the next. Without drugs or alcohol or even a flat surface to sleep on it was healthy and helpful to pass some time checked out playing Empires & Puzzles.
BUT:
Every day of our lives is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like today, for example: there will never be another Friday the Thirteenth of 2024.
Every single day is another 24 hour trip we get to take. The question as a game addict who also gets a lot of enjoyment and therapeutic relief from playing games, is HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU WANT TO SPEND ON YOUR TRIP STARING AT SCREENS, PLAYING YOUR GAMES?
What are we missing out on on our journey while we are playing games? If you were on a physical trip going somewhere you might never visit again — someplace you spent a lot of time and money and resources you might not really be able to afford to get to — how much of it would you really want to spend doing the same thing you’ve already done for hundreds or thousands of hours before and that you could just as easily do in bed at home?
Where do you want to go today and what do you want to be present for that you can’t unlock in a game app?