Thoughts From Places is a fan-favorite Vlogbrothers series, and today's video is widely considered to be the early beginnings of that eventual series. John Green goes to a place and, over shots of showing off that place, tells a story or muses on a larger concept somehow connected to that place. They are beautiful, thoughtful, and sometimes even inspiring videos, and together we may have technically just watched the very first one.
Or that may be the case, that is, if you're following along on Vlogbrothers Rewatch! This is an ongoing series in which I document my daily journey through every public Vlogbrothers video on YouTube. I'm doing this in chronological order from the very beginning, using this playlist -- and today, I am feeling a little bit inspired to visit a mall.
Fortunately for me -- and unfortunately for what remains of my bank account -- I live near a fairly sizable mall and actually visit it quite often still. A lot of the stores have left and I definitely would not say it's the most glamorous experience, but they do have everything I want to look at when I go there. I try not to go too often, but it's hard. It calls to me. The mall begs to be explored.
I wonder if malls will ever make a comeback. At this point, I doubt it. According to this video's comments, the specific mall John visited no longer exists -- and that's especially more common since more malls closed during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I'm unsure, culturally, if malls are still a thing most kids and teenagers visit regularly. Sometimes I forget that I'm no longer considered young, that I don't know the ways of the modern youths. Perhaps, for now, that is for the best.