Why Wizard101 Holds A Small Piece of My Heart

Wizard101 is reaching its 10th anniversary this month, which is a huge milestone. 😱

And while some people play Wizard101 to try it out, others continue to play it even on the rare occasion. (I am guilty of this.)

This game is one of the first MMORPG games I played, so it holds a very smol place in my heart. It probably contains a small place in a lot of people’s hearts, or maybe a more significant place. But hop into the Wizard101 community, and you’ll find quite a few people who are passionate about the game, and have been for years.

And because the game is turning a decade old this year, why not talk about WHY it holds a small piece of my heart?

Everyone has their reasons, after all, and while this might be a little hard to believe…

My blogging journey started with Wizard101.

“Hold up, Sophia, you didn’t just make a blog because you liked reading and writing together and thought book blogging would be interesting? 😱”

My first experience in blogging was in early 2012 because I wanted to talk about my experiences on Wizard101 to other players as well… and it turned out to be a pain and a chore. Blogging about Wizard101 was fun at first, but it turned out to be something I didn’t enjoy – that kind of the ruined the game for me a little as well.

That taught me one of my first important lessons about blogging.

Despite the fact 14-15-year-old me didn’t know it at the time, blogging about Wizard101 taught me something fundamental, which I pondered about when I asked why we create content and continue it a few months ago.

And maybe it was because I’m not a huge gamer – I’m more casual. Blogging about games, to me, doesn’t feel as natural as it is with books. While I went through a phrase of Wizard101 and played it for a good part of my middle school and early high school years, I didn’t find interest in other games. I originally found it after reading the Harry Potter series – I wanted to find an HP-related game, and it led me to Wizard101.

All the other games I tried were boring and more text-based or dress up games, which bored 12-year-old me.

Would I have been a blogger otherwise?

I’m an overthinker sometimes – I like to think about the what-ifs of a situation and possible scenarios that could have happened aka I sometimes reflect too much.

Occasionally I ask myself, “Would I have been a blogger through other means?” If I didn’t start off blogging about a game I was passionate about in middle school, would I have gone into book blogging? It’s a possibility, but I wouldn’t have started out early, which would have led to other things.

This is the butterfly effect in action, isn’t it?

I would still have no clue what I truly want to do while going on a practical path.

I still don’t know what I want to do in life and while I’m trying to explore that in college, time is a horrendous stick in the side. I planned on going the exact path my family wanted me to be – going through pre-med, applying to medical school, becoming a doctor. It was the safest way to go. 🤷

Perhaps it’s a little hard to understand how that could have happened, but trying to tell your parents the medical field is interesting but not something you’re invested in isn’t the easiest “fight.”

I’m not sure I would have gotten to that point without tracing it back to Wizard101.

Every time I take a step back to reflect on my blogging journey, it always leads me back to the same thing over and over again. Eventually, I would have blogged, but it would have been later… if I even started. Having the opportunity to blog and explore the creative side of me… it certainly hasn’t told me, “Hey, I want to do this for life!”

But it’s given me an idea of what I want to do in life, and allowed me to grow my creative side that I would have hated to do otherwise. I hated writing in school, and I felt stuffed in a giant me-sized cardboard box with all those requirements. Free writing was more fun and honestly? I learned more about writing from blogging than in the classroom. 😂

For some people, playing Wizard101 is casual. For some, to get away from their lives. But for some, it’s growth and development – the beginning of a journey somewhere.