Tonight marks the end of an era: the last Star Wars movie is out! I won't be seeing it tonight, nor for many nights after due to school work. Sigh. The life of a grad student is fraught with peril. It all ends Tuesday. I hope... Anyhow, what began in the summer of '77 when my parents first started dating is now ending in the summer of '05 when... Oh never mind... My parent's first date was Star Wars, so you might say I'm a child of the force. That was before the Platypus. Will there be a day after the Platypus? I don't know.
I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old. That's a couple years after it first came out. The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer. I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit. It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows. With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play. What was that first game? It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past . Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge. It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing? There were stretches when I didn't. Many times, I've just been too busy. There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games....
Comments