I haven't touched this blog in awhile. Life has a way of moving in unexplained ways and sometimes it can be a bit hard to control. This is gonna be a pretty personal entry, but I finally feel like I'd like to talk about it. I'm gonna try to keep parts of it humorous (so I don't cause a high number of unexplained deaths to boredom), but this is definitely not going to be my funniest blog.

I'm a gamer. Most of my friends know this, but since I don't feel like scrolling through all my blog posts, I'm going to just assume a lot of you don't. I love gaming, despite what I'm about to say on the subject. It's a fantastic pastime and I'm thinking of making a career out of it still, but I've come to realize that I've let it affect me in ways I shouldn't have.

When I first started gaming a lot in my second term of my second year of university, I thought it was a phase, much like almost everything else I start. I'm not much of a person for finishing things, so I assumed my desire to game would fade pretty quickly. It didn't. For once, I managed to stick with something and continue doing it. I wasn't much of a serious gamer, but it continued on into summer, where most of the issues started. My parents have never really been much of a fan of gaming, heck, we weren't allowed to play our N64 on weekdays until we were about 16, and our computer use was limited to about an hour every other day. I'm still not sure whether the strictness helped prevent the problem or exacerbate it. But when I came home that summer, my parents and I had way too many fights about gaming. My brother and I played about an hour a day that summer, which in my parent's eyes was too much. I still disagree on that point, but with my work that summer, we spent almost the entire summer gaming and working.

My disagreements with my parents that summer were way too numerous and heated, but I'd really like to talk more about how it affected me. Gaming during the summer wasn't too much of a problem, mainly because I lacked friends in my hometown, and it was just an activity I could use to pass the time. It wasn't until I returned to school in the fall that gaming really started to adversely effect me. That first term back was the worst four months of my life. I used gaming as a vice, an escape from all things that troubled me or that I couldn't deal with. My grades that term were abysmal, my attendance in classes way too low, and my social life nigh unexistant. The problem followed this endless loop, as I would miss a class to gaming and use gaming to escape the guilt, thus making it more likely I'd miss more class to gaming. That term isn't something I like to talk about much, as it had a profound effect on me. The second term that year I managed to pull myself up out of the void, even though I still gamed a fair bit. This past summer's been good too, but my social life during summer is depressing, as there is none. But that's for another blog.

I didn't actually break the hold gaming had until very recently, this first term of my fourth-ish year at university. And I didn't do it alone. I've met a number of amazing people this year, who've taught me a lot (you know who you are). As well as that, my existing friends have been incredibly amazing with me, especially having put up with me through that scary time. It hasn't been until recently that I've realized just how much that time has affected me emotionally and it's definitely nice to have escaped that time (fingers crossed I stay out of it). That's not saying I still won't game a lot, but it's not going to affect me negatively anymore.

In closing, for those of you still with me, I'd like to thank you for sticking it out and staying with me. It might not be incredibly interesting for you, but I hope you can at least take something out of my story. Also, I'm attaching a video of one of my favourite comedians, so you can at least watch something funny. I give you, Tig Notaro!