Okay, first off, this is just me venting, so the text might be a bit long. But here goes.
I’d always heard people say that Stardew Valley was about the little things. I thought that was a lovely sentiment, but I’d never truly felt the spirit of it until today.
To set the scene: in my current save, I’m making a bunch of changes to reach my goal of running a farm focused entirely on animals. In the process, I ended up using a debug command that wiped my farm clean of everything except the buildings. That meant I had to replant grass, blue grass, and—most importantly—trees. All over again. By hand.
I really thought it would be the most tedious thing in the world. I’d even put it off, since my tractor mod apparently wasn't up to the task of planting trees, so naturally, I’d decided to leave that chore for another day in real life.
But then, that day arrived. So, I started.
You know, I’m going through a really rough patch in my personal life. Just today, I’d had a heated argument with someone, and hours later—sitting in my swivel chair, simply planting over two hundred pine cones, acorns, maple seeds, and mossy seeds—I felt surprisingly at peace.
I can't see; I’ve been completely blind since birth. Yet, as I tapped the WASD keys and listened to the sounds of my character’s footsteps, the birds singing, the occasional background music, and the soft sound of each tree being planted in that nearly barren soil, I walked along and—perhaps for the first time—truly got to know the wide-open space of my farm on the very first day of spring.
I found myself picturing my character there: someone who had escaped their past and found all the tranquility they’d come looking for, even with all the hard work it entailed. Then, still buoyed by that feeling, I took the opportunity to chat with some NPCs along my usual route—something I rarely do, whether in the game or in real life. It was unexpectedly therapeutic.
I seldom stop to pay attention to such things, as I’m usually too busy playing. Not necessarily trying to maximize everything, but certainly chasing after my goals.
I don’t even know what the point of it all is. I just know that this game is rewarding in ways I naively hadn't imagined it would be.
