So this memory is a great one that I reminisce about a lot. I believe it was close to the Christmas of either my 8th grade year or my 7th grade year of school. The context of the memory involves a PlayStation 2 that I got for my birthday on August of that year. I loved my PlayStation 2, I had Final Fantasy 10 and a couple of other great games as well. However later on in that year I started to get the infamous "Disc Read Error" that everyone who had a first generation PlayStation 2 knows about. The problem with the system was that in the CD tray, each PlayStation 2 had what was called the Eye. The eye would displace a laser on the surface of the desk and in doing so it would read the data off of the disc and play the game. Well the problem with first generation PlayStation 2's was the fact that Sony didn't put much money into that one piece of equipment.
So like clockwork every time I would rent a new game and it had maybe two or three scratches on it I would get a "Disc Read Error" message and then I would have to go through the steps to clean the disc to the best of my ability and try again. It would work sometimes, and other times I wouldn't even be able to play the games I wanted to play. Around the time that Grand Theft Auto San Andreas came out for PlayStation 2 I was finally able to rent this awesome game for a short period of time. However my PlayStation 2 would not even let me play it because of the disc not being able to read.
At this point I was completely fed up with the system, so I took a look on google at the time for a tutorial on how to fix the problem. They explained that the best way of fixing the PlayStation 2 was cutting the warranty from the side and unscrewing the bottom to open the PlayStation 2 so you could inevitably open the disc tray and clean the "Eye" with a q-tip with alcohol on it.
I researched as much as I could, and with the help of my Mom we both opened up the PlayStation 2 and cleaned the disc tray, and wouldn't you know it, but it finally fixed the problem..... Or at least for a little while. Come to find out a certain percentage of people who would try this fix would actually cause more harm then good for their PlayStation's. The alcohol or something of the sort clouded the eye from ever working again. Well I just happened to be one of the select few, and of course as a small kid I was absolutely devastated. At least prior to me trying to repair the console, it would work some of the time. Now I had no PlayStation 2, and no way to play any of my existing games. Because of this I kind of just gave up on ever trying to fix the PlayStation 2 and playing any of my games again.
The great thing about this memory however, is that my Mom saw how devastated and how hard I worked on trying to fix this broken system. So she started planning and saving with my dad. Flash forward to Christmas of that year, and I got to go through the sequence of opening presents. As I got to open a bunch of boxes with clothes in it, I finally got down to this rectangular package. At this point I had no clue what this could be, so finally I opened it and saw that it was a PlayStation 2 controller. Of course like any kid I didn't understand, and I was pretty sure my parents were playing a very cruel joke on me. So unintentionally I started to feel incredibly defeated, I worked so hard to try to fix a major part of my gaming life, and looking down at this controller just made all of that flood back. I guess while my parents saw the disdain I had on my face, my dad went into the other room and brought forth another bigger box. I was completely shocked, what could be in this box I thought to myself. So I started tearing into it, and with tears already in my eyes I saw that it was a new PlayStation 2 slim. Now if you've ever played video games during that time, you would realize that the PlayStation 2 slim fixed all of the latter versions of the PlayStation 2's problems.
With sheer happiness I was able to finally get a piece of my gaming life back to me, and the main point of this story is to show to you the reader. Just how important my parents were to me, they worked so hard and put so much effort in getting me this console. Because they saw how much hard work I put into trying to fix my older PlayStation 2. My parents have always been in my corner for everything I have ever choose to do, and I can't thank them enough for how awesome they were during my childhood and into my adult life. Some people don't get to have great parents, who would put their financial stability on the line for a degree that they were pretty sure I wouldn't use. But they believed in me, and I absolutely love them for that. Cherish your parents, even if they're not together or they moved on to more ethereal planes. They sacrificed for you, and as adults now we have to show them that their sacrifice was not in vain. I love you Mom and Dad.
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