NES and the Meaning of Life

I’ve been a fan of video games all my life. ~Former NFL All-Pro Michael Strahan

He...could...go...all...the...wayyy....

Let’s face it…whomever invented video games deserves a special commendation. Maybe the Medal of Honor. No, wait, that’s only for armed services personnel. The Congressional Medal of Freedom, perhaps? Something is in order.

Like Mr. Strahan, I’ve also been a gamer my whole life, although I currently don’t own a gaming platform. There’s just too little time in the day and I know I could easily spend 4 hours or more playing Halo when I should be, say, writing my blog. The theory of relativity always rears its quantum head when it comes to video games. “Just another level” turns into “just another three levels,” and before you know it, the whole afternoon is gone and Mom is yelling at you to clean your room and walk the dog. It happens.

When I was a kid, though, and I had far fewer responsibilities, gaming was a real part of my life. I didn’t get an NES until I was 9 or so…my cousins had one, and I was jealous. Our family started out with a Commodore 64, that beloved Atari wannabe with a whopping 64K hard drive. Seriously. Remember, you Millenials, this was 30 years ago. This was when 8-track tapes were still being sold and Hall and Oates were considered kind of cool.

Did somebody step on a duck?

Anyway, I digress. I used to play and play until my fingers bled…Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Bomberman, Tecmo Bowl, The Legend of Zelda. Since I was ten and couldn’t actually go out and be an elven hero or a superspy, NES was the next best thing. When I’d mastered a particular game I could go out and buy or rent another one.

It’s been said that epiphanies literally are bolts from the blue. Unexpected magic mushrooms, if you’d like to use an image from NES. This week, as I was interviewing for a promotion at work, I experienced one of those epiphanies.

The interviewer was asking me to describe a time in my past when I’d had to teach others a specific skill. (For all you job-seekers out there, it’s always wise to have a good stock of these anecdotes in your repertoire.) Quite out of the blue, I told of a time when I had to learn a new technology product at a former job to show customers. And for those of you who don’t know me well, I’m practically a Luddite when it comes to tech stuff. I’d rather go for a slow root canal than become a techie. Which is weird considering I used to be all about video games.

Missing Link?

 At the suggestion of a friend (she knows who she is, and I thank her for making me write this), I decided to dig a little deeper. I remembered all those times when I might have been playing Mario or Zelda and I picked up some seemingly worthless item. “Why,” I might have said in my 10-year-old voice, “do I need this?” Then, when I was at Level 9 instead of Level 2, I’d discover that the coin or jewel I’d dismissed as worthless was critical to moving on. I just didn’t see it at the time.

That’s what I’ve discovered as I’ve gotten older. Those people we work with whom we dismiss as useless? Don’t count them out. As the saying goes, be nice to everyone you meet on the way up, since you may meet them again coming back down. Those training sessions you sat through while rolling your eyes? Maybe they’ll teach you some skill for the future. That seminar where you spent the whole time drawing pictures of the Family Guy cast? It might be the X-factor you have that no other applicant does.

Of course, there’s a huge difference between trying to save virtual 8-bit princesses and living in the real world. We might not have to fight off evil wizards or dinosaurs with delusions of grandeur to get where we want in life. But work is a lot like video gaming. In each stage, we must learn something or accomplish something if we hope to get to the next level. We must vanquish our Level Bosses, either from without or within, and conquer our fears. Most importantly, the things we pick up along the way might help us when we least expect them to. There’s hardly such a thing as a “useless” skill or talent. Chances are there’s someone out there willing to pay for it. We only need look (and here’s a hint: not all doors are visible to the casual eye.)

Now that I’m a Gen X’er looking back, there’s a huge sense of regret that I’ll never be able to play NES or any other game system the way I did when I was little. As I’ve grown my priorities have changed. But I can still play it on special occasions. And, if I ever have kids, they’ll be initiated into the ways of Nintendo. Not to mention they’ll get the knowledge I’ve gathered from my video gaming life.

In the meantime I’ll keep “gaming on” and hoping I get my promotion. Even if I don’t I’ll be stronger for the next time. Like in games, usually people get more than one chance. That’s a chance I’ll gladly take.

Game on!

Happy NESing!

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~ by Howlin' Mad Heather on July 2, 2011.