In all honesty, I have never written a blog before. I never really thought about putting my opinions up for other people to read. But then maybe I shouldn't look at this as a blog for people to read maybe it is simply my online journal that I can go back to in a few years time to read and see what it was that I found important or at least was willing to put into words so there was some semblance of a record that I thought something at sometime.

Why do it with a gaming site...

Well, gamespot gave me the first opportunity. I am definitely online quite a bit but never really ran into an opportunity to just put my thoughts out there for all to read. Gamespot gave me that first opportunity. I love games. I really do. Grew up playing Nintendo though I never actually owned a system myself. Then, one Christmas ( and on a side note isn't it weird I start my first blog on a gaming website around Christmas time?) I opened up this large package to realize that I had received for the first time my own gaming system...a brand new Super Nintendo system. It came with the game Super Mario World. I went to open the box but i was quickly told to wait as I had other presents to open. Other presents??? What were my parents thinking, I was 10 years old and I just been given a brand new gaming system and they wanted me to open up presents that included a new sweater, socks, and I am not lying cause I went back and watched the home video, underwear. Yes, I put off my entrance into my first personal gaming experience in my own home, for a package of whitey tighties...ain't that a trip?

Well, needless to say, my father quickly helped me set up my Super Nintendo with the living room TV. I quickly started playing Super Mario World and I am pretty sure I heard Choirs of Angels sing. It was awesome. For the first time in my life I was playing my own video game on my own video game console. Don't get me wrong though, I was not popping my video game cherry, I had played games before...but always at some friends house, on their game, with their saves, with their previous knowledge of the levels. This time it was mine...my game and my chance to be the progenitor of the gaming achievements for this Super Nintendo console. I would be the one to figure out Mario's path to Bowser as Yoshi carried him to save the Princess...that was until I really got stuck and ended up asking my neighbors how to get through some levels but that is perhaps a diatribe for another day. Still, that day could not have been any better for me.

Now many years later, older and married, I can still recall that glorious Christmas. My family, usually after opening the presents, went to my neighbors house and enjoyed another Christmas morning there...did I go...no. I had levels to pass and that is what the greatest gift was...my parents let. My brother and sister both went to my neighbors and my mom asked me if I was coming...I never answered her and she just gave me a quick hug, though I did not hug back as I was too engrossed in the first castle on that first island of Super Mario World. However, my dad, the disciplinarian of the family came after and said to me, "Are you coming?" and I stopped. I had too, I love my mom, but she understands and would let me go, but my dad worked a lot and when family was together he wanted them together and so when he called I turned and looked at him. With all my might I looked at him and pleaded silently. I did it silently because had I said anything I would have lost and I would have been bundled up and taken over to the neighbors to sit in purgatory while I waited to return to my beloved island of Yoshi and Mario. But my silent pleading worked! My dad looked at me when I turned and he smiled...that was it he just smiled...and I knew...he came over kissed me on the head and said he would bring me a piece of fudge (my neighbor did make awesome fudge and that may have been a reason to give up the game but also a story for another day). He patted me on the head and there I was, faced with at least 4 or more hours of just me and my very own, very first game and game console. It was definitely one of my best Christmases ever...I must say "one of the best" and not "the best" because I proposed on another Christmas and if my wife ever read this and knew she almost took a back seat to a video game...wow...you can only imagine. :D Love you dear! And there you have it...here I was sitting here thinking do I even want to write a blog and now I have related the story of not only how I was introduced into the gaming community but also one of the best Christmases I can remember...guess maybe I do have things I can write about...thank you Gamespot!

Until I write again, Happy Holidays to all and if you don't believe it from my story, understand that video games do not hinder kids learning abilities or stunt their lives, they enrich their lives and allow them to experience every level of every emotion along that emotional spectrum that reside in all of us. Look, at me, that day proved that my parents did know how I thought and what was important to me...and though I have matured since, I have always remembered that then as now, my parents always do know what I am thinking...and in the end, maybe that is the greatest gift that video game console gave me. It allowed me to see that I had parents who not only loved me and cared for me but one's who understood me and appreciated me even though they themselves might not have appreciated what became somewhat of an obsession but alas, perhaps another story for another time...