I have always found it difficult to dispose of nostalgic things. I still have every electronic device I’ve ever owned. An old iPod (2003), an iPod touch 2nd generation (2008), and an iPhone 5c (2013) are stacked up in a drawer. I keep these mainly because they’re like little time capsules into particular times in my life. I like knowing that I can look at these devices to revisit pictures, games, music, notes, etc. from past years.
I’ve opened the iPhone somewhat recently to look at old pictures, but it’s been years since I’ve opened the iPod touch. This iPod was a hand-me-down from my father, who received it as a gift from my sister. I was immediately captivated by it because we’d never owned a touch screen device before. I believe he gave it to me when I was in 4th grade and I used it until the summer after 6th grade when my parents gave me my first phone; thus, it’s symbolic of my last few years of elementary school. I remember somehow figuring out the password to my school’s wifi so I could play games with my friends, and of course buying individual songs on iTunes. I decided to charge the iPod and see what’s on it. After 7 hours of charging, it finally had enough power to turn on.
During this time of my life, these were my favorite games and music. My tastes have definitely changed, so I want to see how well these hold up, starting with the games.
Doodle Jump – 8/10. This was an iconic game. I used to know some of the codes that could be used to get cool characters, and I remember being pretty good at it.
DragonVale – 10/10. This was my favorite game when I was in elementary school. In the game, everyone has an island on which you can build things and breed dragons. I still remember how devastated I was when I lost my island because I forgot my Apple ID. (It was actually my father’s Apple ID and he forgot it.)
Where’s My Water? – 5/10. Kinda repetitive, occasionally extremely frustrating, but fun to play every once in a while.
Bloons 2 – 7/10. Personally I preferred Bloons 5, but I liked all the Bloons games. The only goal of the game is to pop all the balloons.
Stack The States – 10/10. If you want to learn the location/capitals of the 50 states, I would highly recommend this game. My knowledge of United States geography peaked when I was playing this.
Now with music, I selected some of my old playlists to see if I would still listen to them today.
Boss songs for liv – 7/10. I’m pretty sure all of these are in my current “nostalgia” Spotify playlist that I occasionally listen to. Music is so great at bringing back memories. I first heard “Daylight” at one of my school’s talent shows when someone did a fantastic cover of it. I remember listening to “Wide Awake” when I was skateboarding at Camp Woodward.
End of SCHOOL – 5/10. It’s a little too similar to the previous playlist. All nostalgic songs though, that I would definitely still listen to if I wanted to have a little throwback listening session.
Taylor Swift – 10/10. A mix of songs from Taylor’s first four albums. It contains lots of songs from Speak Now which is still my favorite Taylor Swift album. I 100% would still listen to this playlist. It reminds me that not everything changes, as I’ve been a swiftie since the beginning.
Work Playlist – 8/10. I don’t know what “work” I was doing but the songs are pretty good; not sure why that one song was Kidz Bop though.
Graduation 2014 – 9/10. This one brought back memories of walking in to “Let It Go” at my elementary school graduation. I still don’t understand the logic behind our teachers choosing that song, but that, along with the others in this playlist, specifically reminds me of the time around graduation. It’s funny to me that I used to make playlists for certain times such as “End of SCHOOL” and “Graduation 2014,” as I still do this. I love putting together songs that I specifically associate with particular events or times in my life.
With the exception of Taylor Swift, I don’t regularly listen to any of this music, nor do I play any of these games. I’ve definitely outgrown playing mobile games. One reason I think I like the iPod is that it was a lot simpler than a phone. It was entertaining but it didn’t have social media on it or the ability to text and make calls.
Even though technology was simpler, that time of my life was definitely not perfect. There were the growing pains of no longer being a little kid anymore and preparing for junior high school. It makes me sad thinking of the people who I used to play these games with, as most of them I haven’t seen in years. For me, one of the hardest things about getting older is losing touch with people. But overall, the memories are good and I like reminiscing a little about what I enjoyed doing in the past.
