As Pie had mentioned last week, we had to sell her car which was very difficult for her emotionally… of course I was impacted by it heavily as well because I hated the idea that we had to get rid of something that she cherished so much. Knowing the care she puts into everything she loves, I can't help but feel like a piece of her soul is in those items… and the very idea of letting those slip from our grasp makes me feel terrible; like I somehow let a piece of my loved one slip away by allowing this to happen ;-;

I understand that to many people, it will probably seem a bit melodramatic to place such a high value on items; but to us they've always been so much more. They are cherished keepsakes that serve as reminders of eras in our lives, memories that we can hold and feel the emotional impact that they possess. Each item is a journal unto itself, with a narrative that we have stored in the recesses of our memories. Though we are being forced yet again to trim down our belongings due to limited space, at the very least we are fortunate enough this time to do so on our terms; an opportunity we are grateful to have.

Some of my old possessions contained stacks and stacks of old game magazines, such as my all time favorites of Next Generation, GameFan, Gamer's Republic, and Play. Through them, you could see the maturation of gaming as an industry; as the art form became more and more refined, so too did the presentation in print. I loved Next Generation for its more sophisticate take on the industry; I remember it feeling like it had more adult appeal, which to young me who wanted the game industry to be taken seriously was a REALLY big deal. But then you had the GameFan series of magazines and the legendary/infamous Dave Halverson along with the team of editors who worked alongside him (some traveling from one mag to another, from what I gathered) with a magazine that oozed the raw passion of fans…Diehard Fans… ones that dug deep, found the niche titles coming straight out of Japan and would have me excited about the new games that were being developed and what to look forward to. Seeing the crazy colorful, chaotic, awesomely thick pages of GameFan evolve to the elegant artistry of layout design with substantial articles, original art and lengthy interview of Play mirrored the growth of the industry as a whole, I felt.

Pie and I have so many memories with these magazines because they are a shared piece of our history, ones we both just so happened to experience that ignited our passion from a young age. Although it's painful to have to cut up these cherished items, the alternative of having to give them up completely is unthinkable. At least in the process we have been crafting an uber magazine with all the best articles, bits of history and art that we could ever hope for~