Sam LaRose, Author

Since my library closed on March 21st, I’ve had plenty of time to figure out ways to waste time.

It started, March 20th with the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. To say that I was excited about this game was an understatement. The week of the release was so draining for me. Preparing my community and staff for the library closure meant constantly having to force a smile and politeness when…I had very little genuine emotion left about the situation. We were anticipating a closure for 2 weeks. A few days later, our Governor closed all “non-essential businesses” until April 24th.

It is not that libraries are not essential. It is that we are meeting spaces and the lending system of materials is, frankly, highly dangerous to staff and our populations. It’s for the best, even though it is woefully annoying.

Anyway. Animal Crossing. I was extremely anxious that Best Buy was going to be affected by the rash of closures. That there would be some kind of shortage and I wouldn’t be able to pick up my game. I am not the kind of person to do a pre-order. When I checked the week previously, doing a pre-order for delivery wouldn’t get the game to my house until March 24th. Which, simply, was not acceptable.

So, instead a did a site-to-store pick up. On Friday Morning, I drove to my local Best Buy (about thirty minutes away; yes, really). I stood in line for all of five minutes before the game, already paid for online, was in my hand (plus a copy for my sister), and I was back on my way.

To say I was relieved would be an understatement. I fully expected to burst into tears. The ONE THING I had been looking forward to since November (in November, I had Pokemon to distract me!) was finally in my possession, and I could go into quasi-quarantine happily.

And happy I’ve been! My sister’s are also both playing, but my younger sister and niece in particular have been playing online with me. It is so fun to see my niece, who has literally grown up playing the various iterations of Animal Crossing with me, gets so excited. She particularly enjoys the Magic Wand clothing-swap feature. We both got different fruit from “Mom” and I discovered an Island with Peaches, so we managed to swap some of our fruits and now have all them –yay! But, mostly… Animal Crossing has just been a super chill way to spend some time.

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Animal Crossing is also doing a pretty good job of being inclusive, this time around. Instead of picking a gender, you pick a “style”. One is rather boy, one is rather girl. And you can SWITCH IT AT ANY TIME. However, it doesn’t appear to lock any clothing or hairstyle options. I literally change NOTHING about my character by picking one “style” or the other. I love it; although perhaps next time they could include an even more neutral ‘Style Free’ option? Just a thought! (I know, I know, already telling them what to do for the NEXT game and we’ve barely scratched the surface of the new one!)

I have settled on a look, for now, for my ACNH character, which is not the one below, but actually pretty close. If you’re interested in adding me as a Switch Friend, my code is: SW-2816-5513-2508 (Name: Samma)

Stay home! Stay Safe! Stay Healthy!

-S