Now seems like the perfect time to open this Tamagotchi I won from a random website a couple years back.
When my cousin Eric posted this Facebook status, I'd been quarantining alone with my cat in our 500-square-foot studio apartment in Queens, New York for about six weeks. By that point, not being able to leave my tiny living space for anything other than a bi-weekly, high-stress grocery store run had begun to have some pretty severe repercussions on my overall mental health, not to mention my productivity levels.
Make no mistake — I'm not complaining. Things could absolutely be worse, and I'm grateful for everything I have right now. But in order for you to understand what drove a 32-year-old adult woman to purchase a kid's toy from the '90s, I need to paint an accurate picture of where my head was at.
Somewhere between the third week and one-month mark of lockdown, getting out of bed to face another day of this "new normal" felt impossible. I started latching on to the only part of my day that hadn't changed since quarantine — the time before bed, when I'd put something on TV and scroll mindlessly through social media until I fell asleep — which was sometimes 2 or 3 in the morning. Then I'd sleep as late as my earliest work meeting would allow, and then spend the rest of the day playing catch-up, working late into the night. I'd rarely leave my desk (which sits in the same room where I sleep, eat, and attempt to exercise these days), save for necessary bathroom breaks and to shove some food down when I remembered to.
In these uncertain times, seeing my cousin's status made me suddenly certain of one thing: Having a nostalgic toy to play with during all of this would make me happy.
Read the original article on Business Insider