Finding a Copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses Was a Contemplative Trip

Over the course of my career, I’ve moved around a lot. From the ages of 35 to 40, I’ve moved at least once a year. I think it’s done me a lot of good as it’s helped me figure out what kind of cities I enjoy living in, like Irvine, and which ones I would hope I never end up in again, like all of Virginia.

As of this article, I’m currently living just outside of the Twin Cities. This isn’t the first time I’ve lived here though. I did my graduate work up here back in my early 20s and outside of a couple of brief layovers, I haven’t been back since. As far as I was concerned, my time up here ended the moment I got my degree. And I mean that literally as the moment my graduation ceremony was over, I packed up my shit and went back home.

Now here I am, back living in the area as a 40-year-old geek. Within the next two months, I’ll be moving closer to the Twin Cities itself and I’m kind of excited for it. I’ve been back to Minneapolis a couple of times to have dinner and go to a concert, but I really didn’t drive past any of my old stomping grounds.

Fast forward to today. I was watching a friend of mine, QueenChanleen, play Fire Emblem: Three Houses and despite insanely long backlog of games that I want to play through, something in me said “you must buy this today.” Luckily I found a Best Buy that had 2 copies left. So I get cleaned up and make my trek to pick up Three Houses. What I didn’t expect was that to get to my game, I would end up driving through Minneapolis, more specifically, past my school, my old apartment, and a metric ton of buildings that I must have driven by a million times when I was younger.

Suddenly all of those memories started flooding back. I remembered driving up to my first apartment and meeting my roommate, my first time seeing snow, and just these flashes of my time up here. I don’t often get too nostalgic, but I couldn’t help it. Minneapolis has this very old vibe to it, and I got really sentimental seeing how little has changed. There were of course some changes; I’d be disappointed if a city hadn’t done shit in a decade and half. I saw some new buildings that weren’t there before, and I saw some renovated into something completely new, likely the result of the pandemic or economy. It felt like coming home after being away for an eternity.

Anyway, I make it to the Best Buy, pick up my copy of Fire Emblem and grab an early dinner.

Total side tangent: I had heard for years that Portillo’s is this “end all, be all” experience. Maybe it was an off day for them but Jesus Chroist that was a salty mess of a meal. I was legit excited to try that place out and it was really disappointing. Even their famous Chocolate Cake Shake was mid at best. If someone has a recommended meal from there, let me know but the Italian sandwich, fries, and cheese sauce were a hard pass for me.

So after I ate, I started driving back home and again, I was hit with a wave of memories. Driving past the school, I passed the exit I used to take to get back to my old place and a part of me almost took that ramp. It was at this point that the contemplation started to kick in. Grad school was the first time that I had lived away from my Mom and the safety net that comes with it. Again, fast forward to present day and I'm on my own, without the safety net of my immediate family, and (thankfully) doing much better than I was in my twenties. A lot of that has to do with therapy and focusing on self improvement, so I'd like to think younger me would be excited with who I became. I still have a way to go emotionally but at the same time, are we ever really done evolving?

After about an hour of driving and a twenty minute break to eat, I finally get home, game in hand…except I bought the wrong goddamn game.

I know the titles are different but c'mon. Three Houses, Three Hopes. I hop back online, and find a GameStop half an hour away that has one copy left. After taking a very deep breath, I head back out into the Minnesota cold to claim my game.

This time I end up driving past the Mall of America and another forgotten memory comes back. After I got accepted to my grad program, I came up for a campus visit. My cousin who has lived up here for a couple of years at this point, picked me up from the airport and the Mall was where we stopped for lunch. Later that night she would take me snow tubing for the first, and only, time. Snow tubing is plenty fun until you hit a hill wrong and launch your ass 10 feet away from it and land face first into hard snow. The next morning I showed up to campus looking like I got into a bar fight. Thank Cthulhu there are no pictures of that trip.

I eventually make my way to the GameStop and find out that it was next to a comic book store that I used to drive past every once in a while. I had no real memories of going in, but the very basic “Comics" sign on the marquee stuck out.

On the way back home, again, I remembered that before I even moved here, I had worked at GameStop and asked my District Manager if he could ask his Minneapolis counterpart if there was a transfer opportunity. My DM said he checked and there wasn't but when I did eventually get here, I happened to meet the guy he said he reached out to. Turns out that there was no outreach and there were some openings. Thankfully I was living off my student loans and didn't need the job at the time. I was surprised that even after all these years, I still remember the frustration of realizing my old DM lied to me. If there is a silver lining, the experience was a reminder of the type of leader that I never wanted to be. It's one thing to not do something, but another to lie about it. Years later, I would realize that dishonesty is a major trigger for me to disassociate with someone but that's for my therapist and I to work through.

So, after 2 hours of driving, a substandard dinner, and a lot of memories, I finally made it back home, correct game in hand. I didn't expect this trip to be so impactful but I'm glad it turned out the way it did. I’m trying to think if there is a morale to this story and if there is one, it’s to never stop working on yourself. You might be surprised how much progress you make in 15 years.