Jetpack Joyride

Played the crap out of this on my ipod touch.  Remember those days?  Jelly car 'n' shit.  I'm nostalgic for it, even though it wasn't a great time in my life.  It's wild how hindsight can be, erasing much of the negative, the mundane, the annoying or boring or frustrating.  I have memories of those things, but they don't come to mind when I think of the time through the lens of nostalgia.  I remember the feelings of the time.  I was in high school, and your emotions are just so much more then, when you are a kid.  I remember having feelings about school, about popularity, about myself, my classmates and teachers, about girls, drugs, politics.  Feelings that I still have but are so much more dull now.  What Karli thinks of me doesn't dictate my worth, or my happiness or anything like that.  It did then though, it was so important to be liked. To be liked by anybody or everybody, but especially the right people, and the list of right people always begins with a crush.  I remember my friends from then, I remember feeling like they would be my friends forever, and thay we would accomplish great things.  That my freinds band would blow up.  That I'd be a famous chef.  That the world was our oyster, and all that was keeping us from it was school.  but school ends, and then life goes all sorts of directions you hadn't predicted.  I barely talk to anybody from back then, these days.  Some of them seem so different from what I see on social media.  And seeing that just fuels the nostalgia.  Nostalgia for when things were good.  When my friends and I shared ideals and important moments in our lives.  But I suppose thats growing up in a school system.  You're surrounded by the same people for years, and at a point in life when a year seemed eternal, now it seems ephemeral.  days pass in an instant as you get older.  weeks feel like nothing.  Remember how long a week felt in high school and earlier? It was substantial.  And it mattered. what day it was mattered becasue it determined your classes, and therefore who you would see that day.  your best friend? your crush? that one kid that you would never hang out with outside of class, but always seemed to have a good time with in class.  Everything felt like it mattered so much, and now its easy to see it barely mattered at all.  Contra to today, where the decisions I make are so much more impactful on my life, yet nothing seems to carry the weight of even simple decisions from those days.  Will I take this class or this one? Will I go to this party or this one?  And maybe that is why jelly car, why Rope 'n' Fly, and why Jetpack Joyride resonated so much with us children of the time.  They were simple.  They had decisions that didn't matter even at the time.  They were fun and easy and didn't leave room for judgement.  They allowed me to, for a moment, even during school, to forget that I cared so much about what was going on.  Does this girl like me? Am I ready for the test next block? Was I an asshole at lunch? Hold on, I can't think about that right now, I'm about to hit my PB in Jetpack Joyride.  I remember my friend Cole showing me the game. I remember how I felt about him then.  How I felt about him before he started dating my ex, and got all weird and bro-y.  This game makes me think of geometry class.  I don't have many memories of geometry class, but I remember playing Jetpack Joyride instead of paying attention.  I remember sitting next to Mary who would playfully chastise me for not paying attention.  I remember my teachers goofy voice.  I remember during the final when Kaitlyn said she hopes she doesn't end up sitting next to me, not realizing I was standing behind her.  I think I have more postitive memories then negative from that time, but definitely more negative memories from within the building.  Yet in the building distractions were forbidden, where you need them most.  Not on the outside where fun was much easier to come by.  But it wasn't a phone, so i got away with using my ipod touch more than I should have.  I remember writing notes in it then blatantly cheating on tests.  running the earbud up my shirt and under my long hair to listen to music instead of the teacher.  playing with stupid apps that made it look like I had a beer, a lighter, or a lightsaber.  Or just flying my jetpack down the longest hallway you've ever seen in Jetpack Joyride.  The game itself is nothing special, but my memories of it, and associated with it are.