Real Life Intrudes!

I was inspired by the topic of the shared topic that was originally slated for this week (which has subsequently been bumped to next week), so here I go. Real life and game life. They are and should be very different things. Real life contains much more than just game life: friends and family relationships, significant others, work, other hobbies, and so on. Game life often becomes just a small facet of our lives.

And this is the way it should be. I love video games, sometimes too much. I have been playing these things since I was a little kid and cannot imagine a life without them. Over the years I have at times struggled to keep a healthy balance between playing and my other responsibilities. The good news is that as I have aged, my understanding has improved and my priorities have shifted.

As a result, I have a more rounded experience as an individual but still retain my core interest in gaming. However, sometimes I still get carried away one direction or the other. For example, over Thanksgiving break, I spent a pile of time with my family and saw all of my grandparents. I did not get any school work done and made only limited progress on any writing for here (as you may have noticed). I sacrificed my game time for family time.

The same has been happening quite a bit this term. I am trying to finish up my undergraduate degree in civil engineering and have to get through my senior design class this fall. That has been consuming a good bit of extra time that would normally have been spent with my keyboard and mouse. My game time is limited by my academic and career ambitions.

I foresee in the next few years I will be extremely busy with setting up my career and getting the rest of my life off to a good start. My gaming might suffer at times as deadlines at work come and go and holiday visiting consumes my attention. But the key is to remember that real life is so much more than game life.

~ by Aliera on December 7, 2010.