I’m a hard-working student. I care a lot about my grades, and I can’t help but feel a tad disappointed whenever I get anything lower than an A on a test. Yes, grades are very important to me, therefore I always try my hardest whenever my academics are at stake. But video games are also important to me. There was a time when I would actually take my Nintendo DS to school with me to play in between classes. Now that my schedule isn’t jam-packed with lengthy classes, however, I no longer need to do that. So I eagerly look forward to the end of class, when I can drive home and play some video games.
There’s nothing more satisfying than getting home after a tiring day at school and firing up a game console or turning on my computer to get my game on. I remember a time when I had just finished a tough final. I got home, turned on my Nintendo Wii, and beat The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the very first time. It was a great moment, and obviously a memorable one for me. Then there were the countless Fridays when I was but a mere middle school student. I’d get home after dealing with all the schoolyard antics that are ever so prominent in the child education system, and I’d power on my Nintendo 64 and play Paper Mario, Jet Force Gemini, Banjo-Kazooie, or one of the countless other games in my Nintendo 64 collection. It was sweet, it was relaxing, and it felt great after a tough school week.
I hadn’t done the whole video games after school thing recently, mainly because I tend to work on my writing after school or head over to work. But after purchasing StarCraft for my PC about a month or so ago, I decided I’d do that which I did all the time when I was younger. After sitting in a class for three hours and learning about rocks, the earth, and other such topics, I decided to relieve some stress with a little StarCraft. And you know what? Gaming after school feels just as great now that I’m 23 years old as it did when I was 13 years old.
There is just something really soothing about listening to that classic StarCraft music and hearing all the sound effects as I lean back in my chair at the desk. Then the visuals. After staring at countless PowerPoint presentations and writing seemingly endless pages of notes on Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift, it’s nice to look at some sweet, nostalgia-inducing isometric 2D graphics.
I devote my weekdays to games journalism and my weekends to school and my security job (ugh). That’s why any chance I get to play a little bit of StarCraft is very important to me. After sitting in a classroom for hours and being lectured on so many different topics in the span of three hours, it’s great being able to let loose with a cold bottle of water and some good ol’ StarCraft.
