Wide as Oceans, Deep as Ponds: The Common Thread Between Gaming and Traveling (and anything else, almost)

I've recently delved deeper into the world of gaming, a hobby I'm relatively new to. As a child, my experiences were limited to whatever games I could access, which wasn't much, considering the high cost of gaming hardware. Nowadays, this barrier has somewhat diminished, though not entirely; now, it's a cost of time. With this scarce resource, I often grapple with the decision: what game should I play next? It's not because I've exhausted the ones I already have. On one side, there's the swamp of my gaming backlog slowly filling up, and on the other, a mountain of unexplored games. Deciding where to start the climb is a puzzle in itself.

This has made me think about our mortality and the limited time we have for new experiences. The sheer volume of experiences available to us is practically infinite. It's easier to quantify this in the context of gaming. Do we aim to skim through as many games as possible, getting just enough of a taste to say 'Yeah, I've played that,' and then move on? Or do we dive deep into a few chosen games, spending enough time to fully relish the experience? The FOMO when making the latter choice is actually the source of this dilemma.

This phenomenon can be translated to any experience out there, like traveling, for instance. Recently, an acquaintance of mine went on a tour, visiting 10 different countries in just 14 days, or something in that ballpark. While everyone has the freedom to use their time as they please, I couldn't help but liken this to the 'skim as many games as possible' approach. Drawing from my own rapid-fire traveling experiences to multiple cities, I've found that, in retrospect, these trips often felt like a blur. Recounting the journey sometimes led to mix-ups:

Me: "Man, that breakfast was a banger in Milan."

Friend: "No, it wasn't. That was in Verona."

Me: "Oh... yeah, I guess you're right."

The brain tends to meld different experiences together, losing the nuances that make each place unique. Sure, someone might argue that comparing different cities side by side, much like tasting two varieties of coffee, can highlight their differences. But just a few slurps during a cupping session, or a fleeting visit, isn't enough to truly grasp everything a new place has to offer. It kind of defeats the point of traveling, I think.

Considering all this, I find myself gravitating more towards the approach of savoring each moment. It strikes me that when we rush through experiences without truly appreciating them, their value diminishes. The vast expanse of possibilities available to us is indeed infinite, but our time is not. This realization prompts a shift in my mindset — from trying to experience as much as possible to deeply relishing the experiences I choose to engage in. What do you think?