I’m 28 today. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the matter.
To give you some insight into my current mindset I will offer you part of a conversation that took place a few days ago. As I distractedly flicked through Cosmopolitan magazine I aimed the below verbal projectile at my friend, who wore a bemused look on his face from beginning to end:
“Hmm, I’m sure glad I picked this magazine up today because every page seems to want to tell me that women are somehow supposed to find a way to stay in their early 20’s forever. Well I’m 28 and I really don’t care. I’m confident in myself. Those who achieve the right mentality will never feel daunted by growing older. I know what my qualities are and that they will be with me no matter how old I am. So I’m not concerned that I’m nearing 30 and I don’t have a regular income. Doesn’t bother me that I don’t have a house I can call my own. Or a family. Hell, I don’t even have a boyfriend. Did you know I don’t have a boyfriend? Oh man, I don’t have a boyfriend. Oh God, what’s happened to me? I’m literally watching my life slip away before my very eyes. My life is practically over and I’ve achieved nothing. Oh God, this isn’t happening. Somebody’s got to do something. You – you’ve got to do something. You’ve got to help me, man!”
By the time I reached the last sentence I was shaking my friend furiously by the shoulders in a bid for him to somehow manipulate time. It didn’t work. I’m still 28. And I wouldn’t recommend the approach to anyone else because it simply results in said friend making wise cracks about you not only being old but also outrageously senile.
I’m a young’n at heart. I’m a gamer. I like to play with my artificially-controlled friends until the rising sun reminds me that I’m supposed to employ some kind of a time-sensitive schedule of daily activity. From the moment my family and I gathered in awe around that first household gaming system, a delectably inadequate Atari ST, gaming has been a mainstay to my life. As cheesy as it sounds, some of my most memorable and beautiful moments have involved gaming. Moments that, when I think of them, my heart becomes overwhelmed with nostalgia-infused emotion. That childhood Christmas that involved nothing but playing Pac-Man with my sisters and bingeing on delicious MI-inducing foods. My first taste of survival horror that instigated recurrent dreams of exploring wonderfully endearing mansions whilst face-gunning the more recalcitrant members of the walking dead. It’s moments such as these that have led games to being so ubiquitous in my life story thus far.
So yes, I’m 28 years old, but looking back I can see that games have helped to make many of those years ‘fun’. I turn to games for culture, entertainment and comfort – anyone close by me today will be exposing themselves to the sight of my fervent popping of those psychedelic little 1’s and 0’s.
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