Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

This is a tough one to answer! I literally had to sit and stare at a wall trying to think back through my childhood and early teens to find something that I felt great attachment for, and I don’t think I had anything special like that that was solely mine.

Growing up I shared a room with my younger brother. We had a bunk bed, shared most toys and the television (when our parents finally let us have one) to play games or watch movies. We definitely had our own things based on individual interests, but they were still shared to some degree.

Except for the “LEGO Bin” that we shared.

We had a clear plastic tote with a white plastic lid, not small but definitely not large, and whenever we got new LEGO sets that was ultimately where they would end up. We would put the sets together by the instructions, play with them as designed for a bit, and then tear them apart to rebuild and customize. My brother and I shared that for a very long time.

Eventually, in about late middle school or early high school, I took over my older brother’s bedroom (which was right next to ours) when he moved out. I had a few things of my own that came with me and slowly replaced what I had left in my old room with my younger brother. Despite that, we still shared some things even if they had essentially become his by virtue of my moving rooms. The LEGO Bin being one of those things we continued to share.

Whenever we would hang out and play video games in my younger brother’s room, if it was a single player game, we would typically have the LEGO Bin out and be messing around with it while we took turns watching each other play.

Amazingly enough, roughly 18 years later, my brother still has our LEGO Bin. It survived the move from Colorado to South Dakota when we were in high school, and it has further survived since my brother got married and started his family. Whether or not it’s still the same plastic tote I don’t recall, and I don’t think it matters anymore because we’ve collected more and more sets to the point that it couldn’t hold them all anyway, but it’s still there and the nieces and nephews get to play with them now.

Some days I miss having all those LEGOs to play with, to flex the creative side of my mind and just snap together pieces to make something random. I would totally just buy my own sets at this point in my life, but my hobbies take up the bulk of my “fun money” and I wouldn’t have enough space to store everything I want, so for now I’m just going to have to be content with reminiscing. Maybe someday, though.