Nothing sends a nostalgia shiver down the spine quite like Club Penguin. As soon as I would get home from school, I'd log on, perhaps AOL messaging my friends to see what server they were on and spend hours traipsing around Club Penguin. I'd work at the pizza parlor (which definitely trained me for a real-world service industry job), I'd work on my igloo decor (though it was never that good because I had the free version), and hit the slopes in my inner tube. Those were the days.
Club Penguin was a wholesome place where you could connect with other kids, play genuinely fun mini-games, and work collectively to tip the iceberg over. This was a touchstone of my generation. Then, one day in 2017, it all went away. Perhaps we had already gotten too old for it by then, but I mourn it nonetheless. And I wonder what happened to my little pink Puffle.