Doesn’t have to be a thing you bought. Just some thing you didn’t have but then once you did it expanded your scope of actions.
The first obvious example that comes to mind is a car. Plenty of drawbacks to prevalence of cars, but being able to go where I want when I want, and far away, is very transformative.
I’m interested in other examples of things that aren’t just useful, but that open new possibilities.
The first was my bike. Totally changed life. It opened up the entire county to me, though the far end was not viable time wise.
Then my first car.
After that, I suppose it was a cell phone. Gave me the freedom to travel and stay in communication on my terms. However, part of that was caller ID by default. The freedom to ignore calls and make the decision based on who was calling without having to worry about missing an important call was big time. Since I could do this anywhere my car could reach, it was the pinnacle of freedom, with subsequent iterations only expanding the use.
After that? My cane.
After my body fucked up, and I was on a walker for a while, being able to walk steadily without the walker was freedom again. It may seem like the walker was that, but it never felt like it. I went from jogging and walking and hiking freely to crawling, literally in a second.
From crawling, a walker sure was better, but it was as much a symbol of limitations as it granted more mobility.
But the cane? That’s when I knew I would be able to have something resembling the life I had lost. It isn’t the same as it was and never will be. But the difference between having the cane and not having it is what makes it powerful.