This past summer, I won a PlayStation contest for my hometown of Pocahontas, Iowa. PlayStation’s Road To Greatness visited my town, and the whole community got to try out unreleased video games and even got to experience PlayStation’s virtual reality system, PlayStation VR, before it was put on the market. It was such a cool experience to bring to my town, and it was one of the best days of my life.

Back a few weeks ago, I got an email from the person who was in charge of contacting me about everything associated with the contest. The email contained a video message inviting me out to the PlayStation Experience (PSX) in Anaheim, California. PlayStation was paying for me and a friend to fly out to Anaheim for the ultimate PlayStation fan experience as a part of the prize package for winning the My Road To Greatness contest. I was beyond excited.

After booking plane tickets for my third friend to come along, two of my best friends and I packed our bags and made our way to the Des Moines airport. After arriving, we hopped on a plane to Dallas, and then on one to California. We spent Friday evening getting set up in our hotel room and exploring around the convention center. After picking up our badges to enter the event, we dug through our bag of goodies that was got for free. The bag was only a glimpse of what was to come. Throughout the two days of the convention, we received a plethora of both digital and physical freebies.

On Saturday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn to secure our seats for the PlayStation Showcase, which did not disappoint! So many games were announced and shown off during the Showcase, and it had a ton of unforgettable moments. From gameplay of the Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy to the reveal of The Last Of Us Part II, the Showcase had a ton of fans cheering at the ton of their lungs. It was so cool to be in the room with everyone watching the Showcase in person. The way the crowd reacted was absolutely insane! The electricity in the room and having everyone be united and excited as true PlayStation fans was an astounding feeling. When The Last Of Us Part II was announced, the reaction that came from everyone in the room was unbelievable. The video attached in this article doesn’t even come close to capturing how loud the room was during the reveal. I distinctly remember sitting between my friends, and when the trailer started I kept going through my head trying to think of what game this could be. And then, once the firefly logo was shown on the stop sign, I instantly knew it was The Last Of Us. I started hitting my friends’ knees out of pure excitement; I couldn’t contain myself! Even watching the trailer now, I still get chills every single time.

After the Showcase ended, we hit the show floor and got to check a ton of games. Although there were a ton of people there and some of the lines were hours long, it was fun to simply roam the show floor in search of bumping into an internet celebrity or PlayStation personality. There was always something to do or something to see, and there was always an opportunity for a photo.

Saturday evening we ordered pizza in our hotel room and then went back to check out more of the show floor. We got to play demos of Ace Combat 7, Gran Turismo Sport, and Sniper Ghost Warrior 3. At 10, we went back to our hotel after a quick round of Rainbow Six Siege and went to sleep as soon as we hit our beds. It had been a great day of meeting people, playing games, and collecting goodies.

We got to sleep in on Sunday morning, and then we met up with another one of the Road To Greatness winners. It was so much fun to get to meet the people I’d been talking to online for months about PlayStation, and going around to parts of the convention with them was even better. We were lucky enough to meet all of the Road To Greatness winners at PSX, and it was so great to be able to connect with them and talk about each of our events. All of the winners got to meet Kinda Funny, a YouTube group that I am personally a huge fan of, and that in itself was absolutely crazy! The weekend contained so many moments like that, where it almost didn’t seem like reality.

After meeting Kinda Funny, my friends and I continued to roam the show floor in search of getting as many goodies as possible, and also trying out as many games as possible. On Sunday, we focused on hitting more of the independent developers due to shorter lines. Despite shorter lines, the indie games were just as fun as most of the triple A games there. Games such as Brawlhalla and Earth Night were a blast to play and super charming. What made the indie booths even better is how the developers would always come up and talk to you about the game. They’d answer questions and explain their game to you, and it was nice to feel how real these people were. Making these games weren’t just their jobs, but it was also their passion, and it was really cool to get that vibe from them.

The convention ended a lot sooner on Sunday than it did on Saturday, so by 5:30 my friends and I had left and hit up a fast food restaurant in a nearby hotel. After eating some food and taking some much needed down time, we laced up our shoes and set out for Disneyland. Even though we were there for the PlayStation Experience, Disneyland was a block away from our hotel and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go.

Disneyland consisted of running around trying to find the best rides with the shortest lines. We spent about 4 hours at Disneyland, which included riding Splash Mountain 4 times in order to get the perfect picture on the ride. By the end of the night, we had Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah memorized and could sing it at the top of our lungs for anyone who asked.

Monday consisted of car rides and airplane flights. On our way to the airport, we were able to ride in the same shuttle as the Denver winners. It was great to pass the time with them by talking about our experiences at the convention and playing Crack The Case. After a long day of travel, we were happy to finally be back in Cedar Falls at 1 AM Tuesday morning.

It was such an incredible weekend, and one that I will never forget. The best part by far was getting to go with my best friends and spend every second of it with them. We had so many laughs and made so many memories that weekend, and it is one I will absolutely never forget. And on that note…

I want to say thank you, PlayStation. You’ve given me so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences this year, and I am incredibly grateful for all the memories I’ve made. 2016 has been a great year for me, and PlayStation has been a huge part of that. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have PlayStation in my life. I plan on being a PlayStation fanboy for the rest of my life, and someday I hope to actually be able to work with PlayStation to change someone else’s life in the same way they have changed mine.