Gaming Is My Medication

A story of the struggles growing up, and with video games helping keep the young boys life positive.

Gaming Is My Medication

 

This is not some unsolved mystery or made up bedtime story. This is the tale of young boy who had a rough life but realized his

Gamer Gift. What is the Gamer Gift, well that will be answered in time. We all are born with some special ability that makes

each and every one of us unique. We can be dancers, musicians, artists, or anything that we set our mind to achieve. Leading

to his special quality, he is a natural born gamer. Now some might argue that being a gamer is not special, but let me show

you where their wrong. Taking you back to the earliest gaming experience he could remember.

 

It was an average day at his home, where the sun lightly peeked through the curtains, waking him up. The smell of freshly

cooked bacon and eggs hovered around the air. The sound of the family talking pushed its way through the walls. So he got

dressed and made his way to the kitchen. Entering the room he noticed that no one was there, so he snatched a piece of

bacon from the stove and ran off like a chipmunk gathering for the long winter days. "Mom," he called out, wondering

where she is, he decided to go look around to see where she had gone. This adventure from room to room was getting exhausting,

so he ran back to the kitchen and stole some more bacon. He finally decided to go upstairs to her room. Making his way up

the stairs, he heard a strange noise coming from the television. Peeking his head into the parents’ bedroom, he noticed

some sort of game being played. So slowly walking in like a lion on the hunt, he then asks," what's that?" Mom reply’s," well

this is the game, Pitfall, for Atari." Pitfall is a game where you’re a guy running and jumping over obstacles and stuff. Watching

as they play the game, his mom handed him the controller so he could try it out. So he starts running and jumping, not

realizing the look she gave, because it was his first try and he had done made it farther then she had in all the times she

had played the game. So she left to go serve breakfast, while he stayed playing the game. This was the start of his game

addiction.

 

A few days down the road, when his dad had come home from work, he had talked to him about other video games. It turns

out that there were more game systems in the house. His dad showed him where the Nintendo 64 was and his face lit up with

excitement like he won the lottery. He had a few games for it like, Mario 64 and Donkey Kong 64. "Dad can I play?" he

asked. "As long as you don’t break it," his dad replied. So he grabbed the game system and showed his son how to hook it up

to the analog television down stairs. Mario 64 was one of the best games of his early childhood, when he wasn't outside playing,

he was indoors on that game. All of the fun you can have in this game was mind blowing. Going through using stars to unlock

new worlds, it was infinite fun. Leading to the day of complete heart break and a river of tears. His sister played the game,

but when she started the game, she had deleted his save file. Deleting save files in games, basically means all that you did

and accomplished is gone forever. It's like owning your own house, car, and company, then losing it all. It's very devastating

when something like that happens. So after screaming and complaining, his mom said well play Super Mario Bros.

 

Then he replied, “what’s that?" "It is an older Mario game for the (NES) Nintendo Entertainment System," mom had said.

So she showed him where the NES was, so he could calm down and start a new game. It was under the Atari in her room, he

didn't even notice it was there, when playing Pitfall the other day. So his mom showed him the basics on how to play, what

not to do in the game. Before leaving the room she had told him not to break the system, and to have fun. Playing the game,

he just kept getting farther and farther in the levels without dying, earning more lives so he could continue on the adventure if

happens to die. He was becoming the game, as he starred into the screen not blinking, he started to jump and move like

Mario in the game. Maybe it helped him concentrate on winning, because he never died and always won every level.

His mom walked in the room and couldn’t believe how far he had made it and thought he cheated the game somehow.

He realized it must have been a good thing that he made it farther in the game then an adult. He had no idea that the

development of the Gamer Gift had begun.

 

A few months down the line, a special day came. Where the morning sunshine glimmered across the sky, and the trees

sprinkled snow upon the ground. It was Christmas! All the kids woke up screaming in joy running into their parents’ room.

"Wake up!" they screamed. Their slow movement to get up was worse than half asleep turtle. So they ran to the living room

 waiting to open their presents. Mom comes in with the camera, “smile" she says. So we take pictures and open our gifts until,

the son opens the last one. It was a Gameboy Advance SP, what he had wanted. His grin was cuter than a fluffy puppy. He

even almost cried at the site of the gift he had received. This particular game system is portable, so now he could game

anywhere. You see kids with dolls or action figures out in public, but not him, he had his Gameboy everywhere he went.

In a way, it was his new best friend. He even started sneaking it to school, when recess came, it was straight to gaming he

went. He and his friends would play levels over and over to see who complete them faster. He always had the lead.

Some worried that it would hurt his learning in school, but he was the best of his class. The best grades, attendance, etc.

His skills in learning even increased, he did all assignments faster and better than anyone else. He never even made an error

on them, all of his grades were perfect.

 

Then that led to him becoming a misfit. He was smart and played video games a lot. Is that so bad? Everyone pushed him

away and made fun of him. He was too different to be their friend. So all he had was his family and games to keep him happy.

He went through school being bullied and mistreated, even some of the teachers looked down on him. School is supposed to be

a safe environment for children. Well he ignored everyone; he did his work and sat in silence. He became the shy kid, that

never talked to anyone he didn’t know. He never talked to the teachers unless he had to. Making matters worse, his parents lost

their house, causing them to have to move to a new school. What really sucks, is to be the new kid, in the middle of the school

year, especially when your shy. Everyone just stares at you like your some unknown creature. After he adapted to the new house

and school. He came around to talking at school and made some new friends. These new friends loved video games like he did,

so he wasn't alone anymore. His days became more peaceful then the light sound of waves at the beach slowly swimming to

shore. His friend had introduced himself as Bailey, and then said, “what’s your name?" "My name is Tommy," I replied. After that me

and Bailey became great friends. I decided to stop gaming for a while, until I got a DS Lite for my birthday. The DS Lite was really

nice and me and Bailey both now had one, we would game together all the time until one day something strange had happened.

 

Today i decided to leave my DS Lite at home. I put it up on my dresser like i always do and left to school. You also need to know

that my sister has one just like mine. So this was the day at school where we had professional BMX bike riders come to school.

The whole school got to watch these guys do amazing tricks and stunts. They jumped over people, did flips everywhere, even high

fived the principal while jumping over her with a bike. We were all amazed and could not believe what was happening. It was a

really exciting day. Everyone on the bus ride home was talking about how insanely awesome it was. We all wanted to be a BMX

bike rider when we got older, we were imagining our own tricks we would do. We are a kid, that’s just what we do. Well, it’s my stop,

getting off the bus I tell Bailey I’ll talk to him later. So when I finally get up the drive way to our house i decide to grab something

to eat then head to my room. Time to play my game; I go to grab it from where I left it, to realize it had vanished. I start freaking

out searching everywhere for it. I couldn't find it at all, so I go a tell my mom. When I got to her my sister was telling her that

her DS Lite was gone to. So I said, "so is mine." My mom didn't even know what to think but, when we thought back, me and

my younger sister had overheard an argument on the bus about how our older sister had owed money for a bet to two other girls.

Now even though we couldn’t prove it and mom didn't believe us, we put two and two together. Our DS Lites were gone, our older

sister owed people money, it’s like come on, and everyone knows she took them to pay off the debt, so why won't she admit it.

She never admitted to doing it, but we know the truth.

 

Later in the year we had financial problems we had to leave our home and school again. This time we had to live in a motel and go

to a whole new school. We were low on money and had to make it stretch so we could eat. When it didn’t we would have to hear our

bellies scream out to us but what was we supposed to do. We started sleeping in the car and having to cook TV dinners in gas station

microwaves. My dad had left and intentionally did not come home. He was the only one working and when he did that we had no

money. So my mom wrote checks that bounced, she was going in debt so we would have food to eat and warm place to sleep.

Then she had to go to jail because she owed to much in bounced checks that we we were thrown from relative to relative to live with.

One occasion we even had to stay with foster parents. Eventually our dad came back and things started to clear up but things were

never the same. Ever since that had happened, we have never had enough money to get many extras. All these new things come out

and we can't even buy it. When we go to stores, we can only look, we can't buy it. My mom got out of jail, and she was glad to be home,

but you could see the sadness in her eyes. She didn't want to be away from her kids. What mother would want to, she loved us.

I hated my dad for the longest time. He's the one that left his family, didn’t care if we starved or had a roof over our heads.

Our mom let him come back? Probably only because he was the only one who could support us. I bet if someone else would had helped,

I would have had a new step dad. Like the whole situation was messed completely up, I was stuck in this mess and hardly understood

what was happening. Even though we were now poor, we still had the warmth in our hearts to help us through our troubles.

 

Then one day our dad gets a better paying job, which eventually pulls us out of the slump we were in. Now we got a new house, we are in

a new school, I have made so many new friends. I feel that our life is about to be fantastic. I was happy and smiling all the time now.

I even got the PlayStation 2. My favorite game for it is Resident Evil 4. It was turning into a dream come true, everything was almost perfect.

Then I went to school. That specific day was not so great. My class was outside playing kick ball and I was out in right field. Spencer steps to

the plate, he's a 6 foot tall, two hundred pound kid. He goes by the nickname Tic Tac, but made no sense to anyone. Well just my luck when

he kicked the ball it came my way, it was spinning so fast, it turned from a circle into an oval in the air. That ball came flying into my hands

and at the moment I thought I caught it, my hands went numb. i looked down and noticed both of my pinkie fingers were bent at an angle.

That ball literally just broke both of my pinkies. I went to the teacher and she couldn't believe it. She was kind of in shock about the whole thing.

So I went to the nurse and she cut up binders to make a brace for them, until my mom came to take me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital

it wasn't so bad, they fixed me up and I was on my way home. Even with two broken fingers I still played my video games. That is one day I will never

forget.

 

Finally after a few years has gone by, I decided to switch consoles, I got an Xbox 360. I played this for years and my main game choice was Call of Duty.

I have played that series of games more than anything in my whole life. I am an expert sniper I can black scope, no scope, quick scope,

wall bang and more all with just a sniper rifle. Every leader board there is, my name is at the top. All those who challenge me, I never get beat.

All of the skills I have cannot be obtained overnight, this took years of practice. Not just anyone can be as good as me at a game. it takes a Gamer

to have that skill level, you have to prove your worth. To be a true Gamer, you got to know what older games are, you see a character you should

know the name of that game, memorize it. True gamers are like an endangered animal, there's a small out of us. I have the Gamer Gift. That means

no game is a challenge for me, I can win any game with no help needed, i just know how to win it all. I never struggle with the challenge any game

throws my way, I just run it over and continue down the road to the finish line, I am a natural born gamer. Looking back on all of my troubles, all

of the moving, new schools, being poor, just everything. I realize that gaming has helped me through everything; it’s always brought joy to my life.

it was always there for me, and as I quote, “Gaming Is My Medication."                               

 

 

                                      Story written by: Nicholas R. Henry