#oneaday Day 236: Drowning

I watched this video by Kate, aka Esperdreams, earlier. It was a difficult watch, but I really appreciated the fact that she made it.

It's a Let's Play of a game called Drowning, which is a pretty simple and straightforward "walking simulator", but Kate's commentary really adds a considerable amount of meaning to the whole experience — because the way she describes things makes it look as if the game was written specifically for her.

Drowning is a story about living with depression. It's a candid look at the way someone suffering with depression feels about life; how they perceive the world, themselves and other people. It's extremely accurate. Much of Kate's commentary relates to how she felt similarly to the game's narrator in her teenage years, and how she has been able to learn and grow from those experiences since then. And, I have to say, I related to most of the narrator's commentary — and Kate's story, too.

As a "game", Drowning isn't terribly interesting, as most walking simulators aren't. However, Kate's Let's Play of it here, where she uses it as a prompt to talk about her own experiences and explore her feelings with the viewer, gives me a new appreciation for what this type of game might actually be "for".

It's a long video, but it's worth watching all the way through. Kate's story is all too familiar these days, sadly, and in its entirety it's something that anyone living with depression will be able to relate to — and anyone who knows someone living with depression absolutely should listen to and perhaps be able to understand their friend or family member a bit better.