As I enter into my final semester of college, I have been taking time to reflect on different moments from my childhood that still take precedence in my life now. Although I just recently started writing columns, for my “last first column,” I decided to revisit the good old days when I did not have to work a nine to five or start to move on from school.

Growing up I always followed what my older brother would do. Whether that was wanting to play sports, eating peanut butter with celery sticks at 2 a.m. or playing every single video game known to man. I was the younger sibling that had to do whatever their older brother did. During my varied reflections, I took some time to revisit the activities and see if I still loved them the way I did in early adolescence. One particular event was playing the game Wizard101.

This kid-friendly massive multiplayer online game gives you the ability to create a wizard and follow questlines to save the wizard spiral. The spiral is different pieces of the first world but was destroyed during a war of the Titans. When you first download the game, you are met with the grandmaster wizard, Merle Ambrose, and his pet owl, Gamma. You then take a short quiz that places you into your school which determines your pathway for the rest of the game. Throughout your experience, you are able to make friends, quest together and buy magical houses, pets and mounts.

Wizard101 has a never-ending cycle of ways to play. There are many worlds that follow a long storyline that the creators still update with tons of side quests to this day. You have the ability to have player-vs-player rank matches; you can garden, craft and level up your character as well as your pet.

For reference, each of these individual worlds are based off of a country and historical events or mythologies, and a personal favorite of mine is Avalon. This world is based on medieval Europe and has characters with armor, dragons, swords and more. Even if not for sheer joy, this game is a great way to expand your knowledge or, at the very least, make connections to the game while you are sitting in history class.

My account dates back to Nov. 13, 2010 making 14 years of playable adventures. I reflect on all of my time playing and what has happened since finding this game. I have made so many internet friends that I still talk to today, some live in bordering states while others across the world. I met one close friend, Faith, in 2011 over the game and since then we have met in-person on many occasions. We recently went to the 5 Seconds of Summer concert back in August at Blossom Music Center.

Once I first found out about this game, I would play it for hours on end. One of my fondest memories of my childhood is grabbing my laptop and playing until three in the morning on the night of Thanksgiving at my grandma’s house. As I started to get older, I would discover more games and play those, but they never held my attention like Wizard101 did.

There are short periods in time where I stop playing because I either get too busy or don’t want to play without my friend. I picked the game back up during the long months of COVID-19 where I made a new character and played for hours on end just to do the same thing over and over again. This has me questioning what my emotional attachment to the game truly is.

I think it all started when my parents would bribe me to get good grades in school and they would buy me gift cards for the game. Although the first part of the world is free so you can get a feel for the game, they have a $10-per-month subscription that gives you access to the later worlds and areas. The game has its own currency called crowns that you can use to buy worlds for unlimited access or even use them for fancy mounts, gear or pets. Back when the game used to be extremely popular, they would sell gift cards for these at places such as Walmart, GameStop and Target. Nowadays you are able to purchase cards, memberships and crowns online through their website.

During winter break, I bought a membership and started to play consistently again and let me tell you, all of my memories came back. It truly made me wish that I was 12 years old again when the only thing I was stressed about was if I could defeat the hardest boss in the game. I went around each city and world, re-fought old bosses, even listened to the soundtracks again. Reliving the nostalgia showed me why I truly loved this game so much.

To think that Wizard101 helped me get through COVID-19, learn a little bit more about the world and create a great friendship makes me think of how good my childhood was. Reflecting back and enjoying the time that I can still have with it is something I can look forward to when I have time to go back to it again. I just hope that it does not suffer the same fate that Club Penguin has. I truly would lose a piece of my soul if this game shut down.

As my senior year slowly comes to a close, the chapter I do keep open is the fond memories of playing Wizard101 on my computer in the back of class.