Four Years of Dreaming!

     This month marks yet another big milestone for me, and I continue to grow a little more every year. I have been writing this blog for four years now, at a pace of one post a week, only missing a few chances to write something here and there! Though I haven't always posted all of my blogs on different social media, once I started to, it made me feel much better than to just have something for me to be proud of without anyone else seeing. For those of you who don't know me very well, or if this is your first exposure to my blog, my name is Jonathan Bowers, and I started this project out of a desire to do something more creative during the pandemic. It's pretty timely that this week marks this milestone, because some new friends asked me just last week where I got the title, "A Self-Proclaimed Dreamer," and I was happy to tell them why. Growing up, I was very shy and typically let things go pretty quickly. I had lots of thoughts in my head, but I didn't want to burden anyone else by telling them. I was so quiet that it hit me a few years ago that there are many people who have no idea what I think about all the time, and during the pandemic, I needed to find some way to get myself out there and show just what I can do. I have a lot of thoughts and dreams in my head, but I have a hard time expressing them out loud, it's easier when I'm writing, and thus, A Self-Proclaimed Dreamer was born. Four years now have been filled with my writings about video games, TV shows, movies, and theme parks, as well as various different personal developments going on with me. All of this, along with keeping a journal of daily musings, has kept me in pretty good practice for writing in general.

    This year has been a busy one, certainly the busiest one since I began writing these posts, which is mostly a blessing. I shared last year around this time that I had begun working with a youth group at the church that I attend, and I'm happy to report that I'm still doing that this year. I have so enjoyed this year of working with exceptional young people as they continue to grow and learn more about themselves and the world as a whole. In addition to this, I've done many activities with my friends that I've made, going to baseball games, axe throwing, ice skating, etc. and just enjoyed getting closer to all of them. It's been really nice after a few years of fairly few interactions with others outside my immediate family and a few close friends that I could talk to. I even worked with some of my new friends on a project back in January (thanks to Princeton Theological Seminary) designed to help young adults in our area feel a sense of community that had been broken by the passage of time and the isolation of the pandemic. I was actually involved in this process in several ways over this past year. I was involved in putting up the pop-up event in January for the first round of this new program, then I was asked by a friend to come up to Princeton as a "video game expert" to answer the question of "What can the church learn from gaming?" It was such an amazing experience to go up there in February to help out new groups that were doing similar events to what my group had done, but more tailored to the areas that they lived in. Amazingly, I was asked to come back last week and help lead another group in the same way, so I must have done something right! In addition to this, I wrote a blog post for the Polaris Young Adult Blog (also associated with Princeton Theological Seminary) that went up back in May, which can be found here if you're interested. It has been a very big year for me in terms of thinking of what I want to do, and I'm working on continuing to push myself farther.

    Let me talk just a bit about the games that I was excited for last year that I started writing about. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a fantastic game whether playing by yourself or with friends, and I really enjoyed it. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door's remake was announced just before I wrote this, as well as Princess Peach: Showtime, and both of those games were great! I wish Showtime was longer than what we got, but it was a very fun time for the duration. Paper Mario's remake allowed me to take revenge on a game that I never beat as a little kid, and it was a very nostalgic and fun time, bringing the visuals to much greater heights than the Gamecube game, even though it didn't run at 60 fps like the original game. Mario's RPG adventures are really having a renaissance right now, because in the past year we also got the Super Mario RPG remake, and in November we're getting a new Mario and Luigi game, Mario and Luigi: Brothership, which is just wild to think about. WarioWare: Move It! was fun when I rented it a few months ago, also very short, which is to be expected from that series. I'm getting a little worried that we haven't had any Kirby related announcements in quite some time, with the last game of his being Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe or Kirby's Dream Buffet. I'm joking, of course, but there were a few years there where almost every direct would have something about Kirby.

    This year has been so busy already that I'm having a hard time thinking of all the games that have come out recently, but I'll try my best to list a few games that I've really been enjoying so far this year. Astro Bot just came out a few weeks ago and it's already catapulted up the list to be one of my favorite games of the year, Marvel Vs. Capcom Collection came out a few weeks ago, followed by The Plucky Squire last week, then Epic Mickey Rebrushed and Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom coming this week. I haven't played any of those yet, but I'm really excited to play all of them at some point soon. Animal Well came out a few months ago and was a really cool, innovative 2D Platformer/ Metroidvania full of puzzles and some light horror elements to it, Pizza Tower finally came out for the Switch and I really enjoyed the return to Wario Land-esque gameplay with that one, it has been way too long since Wario Land: Shake it! The successor to the Nintendo Switch is supposed to be announced sometime before March of this year, and rumors are strong that it's coming sooner rather than later. I just hope that there will be lots of games to play when it does come out, and that it won't be anywhere near as expensive as the PS5 Pro (which is launching at 700 dollars, and doesn't include a disc drive or a stand, which seems really crazy to me.

    I really don't want to ramble all day, so I'll wrap this up here for now. Thank you so much, friends, for all of the support over these four years, and I hope I'll continue enjoying writing as much as I have. I am so fortunate to be where I am and to know the amazing people that I do. I want you all to know that I'm still working on myself and doing my best to bring something that I'm passionate about to the table. While not every post is a slam dunk, I am so happy to be here and writing all of this content for you to enjoy. I know I can get caught in the weeds, but thank you so much for sticking with me.

    It's a special time in my life, friends, and I'm truly honored to have you along for the ride. Keep an eye on the horizon, because I don't have any plans on going anywhere else! I'm Jonathan, one of many Self-Proclaimed Dreamers, and thanks for everything. I'll talk to you again soon!