i was first introduced to minecraft around 2012 through various content creators. my brother and i would come home from school each day, grab our snacks, and sit together watching minecraft videos for hours. those moments became a small routine, and they’re some of my favorite early memories with the game. not long after, i started occasionally playing the xbox 360 edition on his console, slowly experiencing the game for myself.

in 2014, i finally got the java version of minecraft, and it quickly became one of the most played games in my life. even though i didn’t have many friends who played at the time, i found a sense of community through a twitch streamer’s subserver, where i spent several years building, exploring, and connecting with others.

during college, i began playing a lot of hypixel with my partner, which ended up introducing me to some of my closest friends to this day. what started as watching videos after school has grown into something much bigger, and minecraft has become a constant, comforting part of my life.