late last summer I took a trip with my boyfriend, his younger sister and their extended family to an island. A very small island with basically nothing to do, just beaches and small tourist shops. Me and my boyfriend slept at the bottom of a bunk bed and his sister at the top. The three of us spent virtually every day together for a little over a week, we played mario party on my switch every night and every day we swam in the pool, we’d walk to grocery stores or dollar stores and buy candy or ice cream. It was such a beautiful place and I fell into a true routine there but eventually all things end and so I brought my paradise back with me. I had to get a job for the first time since the pandemic upon coming back from that vacation and I’ve fallen into a routine with that, replacing a warm sunny beach town with the cold artificial lights of working for a mega corporation. I’ve learned to live with that, with being fine working at a place like that, because ultimately it’s all work to provide myself with the future I want. A future that is a paradise I’ve carved out for myself, something like that sleepy beach town, replacing one routine with another.

I think FSR is a really special experience and reminded me every time I played it of how fleeting it all is. To not get caught up with stuff that does not matter to you, to make sure you don’t fall into patterns or routines that make you unhappy. I loved this perfect tiny handcrafted village and I enjoyed my entire time with it, walking from the beginning of the map to the end most days reminded me of how special and precious this life we have is. Ultimately I came away from this game with a very privileged outlook, no one is able to achieve true paradise and so the best we can hope for and the best we can do for ourselves is make our own idea of paradise with what we have and what we’ve been given.