Prior to March 8th, 2020, life was as it always had been. At least, to a degree. I had gotten the day off from work due to having a sinus infection, forced to stay at home for the remainder of March break. If only it were to stay that simple…
As I rested to recover, things started to get a bit more interesting. When I would watch the news, more and more reports kept coming in regarding the death toll in other countries and the starting number of cases here due to the new "corona virus," what would later be called Covid-19.
Every passing day the number of reports just seem to get more and more numerous along with the number of cases. Before I even knew what was happening schools were closing, businesses were getting shut down.
It all seemed so sudden. It felt out of place that I was the one recovering from illness when so many others were getting sick.
A few days later, when I was starting to get on the mend, UMass Lowell announced that classes would be continued online after spring break, with an extra two days given to adjust to the transition. The news was surreal.
The following weekend, when my sinus infection had passed, I had the urge to go out again into the world, just to try and make things feel back to normal before I had to begin school online. My mother offered to take me grocery shopping with her. I distinctly remember going into the store, both of us mentioning how we specifically needed toilet paper that week because we were starting to run out at home. We went to the same Hannaford's in New Hampshire that we always do, at the same time on a Saturday morning. What we were not expecting, however, was what we found.
(Figure 4: Series of empty grocery shelf isles at Hannaford's. Photos taken by Lauren McLean.)
We were in awe. Just last week my mother had gone to the same supermarket and the shelves were stocked up full. The whole time I kept thinking that this could not be real. “My God, what happened?” I thought aloud. “Fear,” my mother replied. It was something neither of us had ever seen before, the general panic of others taking presedence over everything else. Nothing was left. And seeing how much fear could control people was a disheartening sight.
It was only a few days later when my father got laid off. My work followed soon after, furloughing me until they could reopen. My mother, being considered an essential worker, was asked to work from home. We were all home at once with nothing to do, nowhere to go. With all of us being home at once, my dog Charlie became confused as well. We all get to spend so much more time with him, and he’s always so happy to do so. Now, however, because we all have been home so long he now follows me and my family around, no matter where we go. And if we don’t give him enough attention he will begin to act up. Most of the time, he just stares at us in confusion.
Once we took a few days to settle into our “new normal,” however, we soon found it somewhat relaxing to be home so much, albeit a bit boring. My dog included.
After a week or so, it soon came about that my father asked me to play one of my video games on my Nintendo Switch. Any one of them. He didn’t want to play, only to watch, needing to get his mind off things. The news was becoming tiresome to watch.
I put in a game called The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. With its Claymation style graphics and vivid colors, I figured it would be the perfect thing to cheer my father up. It worked, and I ended up playing for hours with him just enjoying watching. After I began to play for a little while, my mother then joined in to watch after work.
(Figure 7: An adorable scene in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Photo taken by Lauren McLean. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening property of Nintendo.)
From there it became a nightly routine. I would log on, play various games for a while, and my parents would just watch. Sometimes they would point out helpful things they noticed, sometimes they just judged my poor playing skills. We kept busy almost every night after that, cycling through different games and laughing over accidental game overs and the occasional glitches that popped up.
(Figure 9: Photo of Animal Crossing: New Horizons loading screen on a Nintendo Switch. Photo taken by Sara Kurfeß.)
(Figure 10: The game trailer for Animal Crossing: New Horizons that inspired me to play the game. Animal Crossing: New Horizons property of Nintendo. "Animal Crossing New Horizons - Island Life is Calling! - Nintendo Switch." YouTube, uploaded by Nintendo, 7 Apr 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9TY741PSh8&feature=youtu.be.)
After a few hours playing a few days after I bought it, however, I soon became hooked. The idea is simple enough: you build up an island paradise for animal people to settle on and relax, able to do things like fish and craft. My parents ended up adoring the game almost more than I did. It was all that I would play for a while, getting absorbed in the sheer idea of starting a small community for such friendly in-game characters.
Time has managed to pass by much quicker thanks to this routine. Through this pandemic, my family and I have found a new pastime to share amongst ourselves that so many other people have enjoyed as well. Despite not being able to go out into the world, we have found ourselves immersed in a new realm of bright colors where there is never a sour day in sight and you can always start over again. Though stressful at first in seeing the world change so abruptly around us, we all managed to settle in and spend some quality time with one another. Although, I believe that even when life goes back to normal my family will continue this tradition of spending quality time together.
(Figure 12: Isabelle from Animal Crossing: New Horizons welcoming players back to the island. Photo taken by Lauren McLean. Animal Crossing: New Horizons property of Nintendo.)
Video games have been my family’s saving grace, giving us a chance to laugh and have fun with one another while still working together to help solve problems (though they may be in-game). In a way, this virus has brought us all closer together, giving us more time to spend with one another than we ever had time for before.
These games have proven to bring joy to everyone in my household, and though they may not solve the world’s problems or hold the cure to Covid-19, they certainly make quarantine a lot more pleasant. And one could certainly never have a brighter time in these pixelated worlds, giving a chance to push the real-world’s problems out of our minds for just a moment and focus on the here and now.
(Figure 14: A porthole view of my Animal Crossing character. Photo taken by Lauren McLean. Animal Crossing: New Horizons property of Nintendo.)
(Cover Photo: A touching scene in Link's Awakening. Photo taken by Lauren McLean. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening property of Nintendo.)
Credits:
Created with an image by Sara Kurfeß - "untitled image"