Glad to see that I can completely not stick to anything that I say, and completely lie to myself about a posting schedule. Sunday is not Friday, not even in my personal reality. But I suppose on the flip side, it's better late than never. How will I ever forgive myself.....OK I'm over it.
As it was, rather than attempt to post on Friday and use company hours to fulfill myself on a personal level, I ended up heading over to
1up and reading an
article that they had posted that rang some very intimate bells with me. Life's managed to sneak up on me here, and I am a part of the first generation to grow up with video games playing an intricate part in my life. Hell, video games even made one of the biggest of "Life's Decisions" for me, what I wanted to do when I grow up (create video games, and thus I went into technology and programming).
This being said, Life has managed to sneak up on me. Up until this year, I had lived a relatively relaxed existence, with a minimal amount of responsibility, which was exactly that way I liked it. It all started with a realization, in the form of a birthday. My 26th birthday to be exact. All the way through college, one of the euphemisms that I threw out with much chagrin was that "Life ends at 26. I mean what good happens after you turn 26? If I have my way, I'll never have to worry about it" Then suddenly, I
WAS 26, and was stuck metaphorically eating my words. Not only did life
NOT end @ 26, I didn't feel any different at all, in fact I still felt pretty youthful.
A few months later, while going through the junk mail, I received a "Random Survey" that promised to send me $5 for filling it out and sending it in. I have made it a personal trait to not turn down free money, so I sat down to fill it out. My second epiphany came with this survey.
Name: XX XXXXX. Age: 26-32. Right there. Without even knowing it, I had slipped out of the youthful demographic(18-25), and joined a completely new Age Demographic. It was official, I wasn't young anymore. I now joined The Middle. I think I hid in my room for a week.
I found solace in a place that was warm and comforting, and didn't care that I was approaching "Half way to 60" (for those who are bad at math, that's 30), my Xbox 360, and
Gears of War. Somehow, splattering digital avatars all over the screen (and getting splattered myself) seemed to ease the pain, and I came to a conclusion: Sure I'm getting old, but because I'm getting old does not mean that I have to give up what makes me me. For as long as I live, I will continue to geek out over hardware upgrades. Never will my monitor not be adorned with my
Little Yoda.
Sure we as a generation are growing, but we're still the original, and I myself will continue to play on. I just might have to balance a little more. The Wife does kind of frown on All Night Gaming Sessions, and until
Halo 3, I'll just her have her way.
Peace and Gibs,
~M.
