Thank you Sis, Vans and Nintendo!

Today’s my 30th birthday and even writing it makes me feel kind of uncomfortable and happy at the same time.

When I think about my 30 years around this planet and going through that thing called life it’s impossible not to recall my childhood, everyone of us remembers those good old days, when most of us didn’t have any kind of responsibility and we dedicated most of our time being happy.

One of the oldest and happiest memories I have is when I was 4 years old, maybe 5, around the year 1990; I lived in Mexico City with my parents in a very small apartment, and my dad had bought a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) for me, at least that’s was he says every time, but I’m sure he bought it for himself. The NES included the famous Super Mario Bros. game but he also bought another one, for him, obviously, it was a golden cartridge with some big red letters in it that said ZELDA.

My dad worked all day, but every night after coming home and eating dinner he spent about an hour or two playing the golden cartridge, my mom and I sat on the bed and watched him play. In the screen there was this little guy who poked his sword at everything, skulls, spiders, giant mice, bats, dragons and other weird creatures, my dad absolutely loved it. But the moment I remember the most is when he arrived, after several weeks, to the last dungeon, the music was very spooky once he entered, and hordes of enemies crowded around the little guy, but after some minutes he came to the final boss, a giant blueish pig who disappeared from the screen immediately, my dad was so excited and confused, but the little guy died several times without being able to see his enemy.

After trying everything my dad could think about to try to kill the giant pig he made what any of us would make today, if there wasn’t internet; he called a friend of himself who lived very far away but was also playing the same game, after a couple of minutes he came back, decided to kill the final boss of the game he became so obsessed with, and finally, after several tries, they made it, my dad and the little guy had rescued the princess of the game; my dad, my mom and myself looked at each other with a big smile on our faces, we laughed and talked about what had just happened, after that my dad stood up, turned the NES off and went to sleep.

Today I know that the little guy is called Link and the princess has her name stamped on every game she gets kidnapped by the giant pig called Ganon. Also today, my sister, who was born years after the adventure I just narrated, gave me an awesome birthday present, a pair of VANS X Nintendo shoes featuring Link and Zelda just as they appeared on the TV screen that night.

Thank you sis, thank you VANS and thank you Nintendo, thank you all for reminding me that night, for making me cry while I wrote this and for all the good moments I’ve lived throughout this 30 years.