I missed the memo on missing.

Most of my friends know that I really don’t “miss” many things. Not that I’m void of any feelings or emotions (the jury is still out on that one), but because missing what is gone prevents me from appreciating that it once was, even if it no longer is. In other words, I can either be sad that I no longer have my yellow Ford Explorer that I did in high school, or be happy that at one point, it was able to offer me a place to sing as loud as I pleased. I don’t miss the little nacho lunches we got in elementary school, because even though I loved them as a kid, I know that they would now taste pretty lackluster, and having them now may taint the memories associated with them.

With that out of the way, here are things I miss:

• The little manuals inside of video game boxes, which I mentioned in this post.
• The availability of tater tots. This is on my mind because of the aforementioned nachos, but I remember that every Friday in elementary school we were gifted with tater tots during lunch. I do not think this was continued into middle or high school, because I have no memory of those lunches and that must mean I blocked them out because of the disappearance of the tots. And now as an adult, you rarely go to a place that offers tater tots, unless you habit Sonic (the restaurant, not the amazing video game protagonist), and I hate eating in cars so I am not a Sonic restaurant enthusiast (although I have nothing but love for the fast blue alien). I don’t want to go out of my way to buy tater tots to cook for myself, which means I seldom enjoy their company. I just wish they were a more commonplace substitute for fries. But not too commonplace that they lose their charm.
• YoVille. I didn’t do much with my sisters, and we were often at odds, but one commonality we all shared was our love for the game YoVille on Myspace. Although I wasn’t in the age range for Myspace, I was technologically savvy enough to utilize it for all of the games it had to offer. YoVille was basically a teen version of Club Penguin. You had an avatar that you paraded around with different commands for dances and phrases, who had a job to make money, and could buy a house for friends to visit you in. The game had so much more, like pets and fishing (which was my personal favorite), and so many different minigames to play. But as Myspace died off, so did YoVille, and it disappeared off the face of the earth as we entered that time period where online flash games were decimated by mobile apps. I am pretty sure that YoVille was bought by another company and turned into YoWorld, where it continues to thrive on older millennials that didn’t lose faith in it (or Myspace), but I am afraid to go back to it for fear that it will not be what it once was.

and I (selfishly) miss not being in quarantine and seeing friends, but that’s a given. Maybe I can see them in YoWorld.