This quote reminds me of when I would play games with my older brothers when I was younger and how the gaming community has changed since then. One notable difference is how supportive online friends can be! Although the interweb can be super dangerous for making online friends, you can find some amazing people or even connect with friends who have moved away. I especially have been super grateful for the impact gaming streams have had on my experience of making connections and appreciating how a game was made! My current boyfriend and I have bonded over our shared love of Minecraft YouTubers we watched when we were kids and I at the time thought I was super weird for watching Minecraft roleplays or mods. We were just chatting over dinner one night and Minecraft got brought up and we were sent down the rabbit hole! Every time I said a new YouTuber that he had also watched his smile would just get brighter and brighter. I feel like these little connections you make with people are what lead to feeling comfortable in a relationship, whether it's a romantic one or just a friendly one. Society today needs places where we can communicate and connect safely without worrying about how we look, talk or dress because video games put everyone on the same page.

Oftentimes in my own home when I am having a bad day my family does not hear me or validate my feelings. In my friendships I constantly try to make my friends' days better by doing them the simple service of making eye contact with them as they are speaking and being engaged in conversation with them. Letting people know that they are important to you is as easy as remembering a past conversation. This causes a huge difference in their mental health and overall mood. When people listen to me and take my thoughts into consideration my personal growth is improved and as I learn about what a meaningful conversation does for others and myself I place more significance on small interactions. Paying attention to your friends' new social and academic issues shows them your concern for their well being and listening to that enables your advice to be better. Communicating with my significant other is specifically important to me because a relationship can fall apart over not properly listening to your partner or conveying your own personal feelings. I personally have a sort of mental block when I continually keep my true feelings from people as I feel they do not care about what I have to say. This causes more stress on me and hinders my own ability to listen to others, enabling a chain reaction of people not listening to one another. All in all, effective communication is a two way street and connecting with your friends cannot happen without listening.