In-Class Exercise: The Last Thing I Loved

My parents never really let me play video games. They probably thought it rotted the brain. I was always scared to ask them for a new game, and only got to play maybe one or two hours on the weekend. It was my uncle from Australia who first introduced me to video games. I was young, and he was so cool. All my peers were playing these rated M shooting games while we were in middle school, and the one time I got to go over to a friends house we played Halo. I don't even remember how I convinced my dad to buy me Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC. But this was the first game that I loved.

I'm from a small farming town in the middle of the cornfields. While my parents kept me indoors to study or do after school programs, the other kids were out playing in the streets or over at each other's houses. The popularity that my intelligence brought faded fast after elementary school. The cool kids became those that were attractive and did sports. Friendships seemed to disappear as new school years started. I found a community in Halo that I no longer had.

I played this game almost everyday. When my parents thought I was studying, I was playing. I didn't really need to study as much as they wanted me to. Sure, it would've helped with the after school programs if I spent more time on them, but I hated those. I was a straight A student (except for P.E.). I spent car rides reading the game manual front to back so many times that I had the lore and statistics of every enemy, character, and weapon memorized. I no longer worried about who I would sit next to in class the next day. I worried about what weapon I would practice when I got home. 


Three Things:
-The game functioned as an escape
-Made me feel competitively competent
-Created a world that I loved

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