Why Life is Like an Adventure Game

Life is like an adventure game.  No really, it is.  You know how in the beginning of a game you’re given this big task that you have to complete and it’s basically the underlying plot of the whole game?  “You must save the La-dee-dah Princess of Blah Dee Blah from the Sinister Herp-Derp of Evil Thingers.”  Sure.  Great.  Let’s do it!   But then you start playing and Mr. Shopkeep wants you to do this for him, old hag in disguise wants you to do that, and before you know it you’ve been playing for 12 straight hours and are seemingly no closer to Princess Sparkly-toes or whatever her name was. Granted, you’ve been having a pretty good time, since you (hopefully) play adventure games not for their magnificent (yea, ok) plots but for their challenging puzzles and the “journey” as it were.  

The adventure game of my life has been pretty straight-forward.  I have an ultimate goal and a number of side goals that I feel would make my life more meaningful until the time when I reach my final goal.  Because I wouldn’t get very far in life if all I focused on was that ultimate goal, when I don’t yet have everything I need to get there.  Things always end up keeping me busy or taking up time.  “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”  Mr. Shopkeep wants me to do this for him, Old hag (not in disguise, cause we’re in reality now) wants me to do that.  Here I am, nearly 26 years old, and what do I have to show for my work?  No closer (seemingly) to that ultimate goal, but oh the things I have done so far!  I have slayed the dragon of unemployment, traversed across the mountains of self doubt, bested fate in a chess game to end all chess games, and come out (almost) unscathed.  So where’s the pot of gold?  How do you finish the game?  Do you just keep doing mindless tasks and combining arbitrary objects until you have suddenly created the most useful tool EVER that no one ever though they would need?  Keep distracting yourself with little things, always trying to keep something on the To Do list above Agenda #1?  Often our ultimate goals are not something we can work towards, they are something that we someday hope will come to us, but we cannot pursue them or even see any steps we can take to get us closer to them.

Unfortunately there are no cheat codes or walkthroughs for the game of Real Life.  We just have to keep wandering from screen to screen hoping that something pops out at us that we didn’t notice before, keep trying different combinations until finally, hopefully, something breaks and the path becomes clear.  That piece of chewed gum you picked up in the first level may be just the tool you need in the last minute.  You just never know.  I’ve got my menial tasks to keep me busy, plenty of them.  The everyday ups and downs of simply surviving are enough to keep anyone busy for a lifetime.  The trick is to keep that goal in sight so that when opportunity rears its head, like the proverbial “Cutscene to Act 3”, we will be ready to forge on.  Here’s to eventually winning the game of life.

Living the Dream

If someone had asked me 10 years ago (when I was a sophomore in High School) what I wanted to be doing at this point in my life, I would have told them I wanted to be in Disney.  I’ve always loved Disney.  I was raised on the movies, visited Walt Disney World for the first time when I was 7 years old, and had always spent my daydreaming time wishing I was back in that magical place where anything was possible and the fun never stopped.  In high school I would spend my time copying drawings of Disney characters, hoping to someday be a Disney animator.  I followed that dream to an art college, where life led me to film instead of animation after I realized that drawing was not my passion.  I still never lost my love for Disney, in fact it only got stronger, and I ventured down to Florida to take part in the College Program in 2005.  While it wasn’t exactly the dream experience I had hoped it would be, it still didn’t dampen my love for everything Disney stands for in my eyes.  

After graduating college, I looked for work in NYC as a film editor for a year with no results.  Realizing that the film industry without Disney was not somewhere I wanted to be, I changed directions.  In fact I made a 180 degree turn as I enrolled in Massage Therapy school.  I figured that while I was figuring out my next step that this would pay the bills.  Instead, it turned into my golden ticket.  I got jobs at local spas and soon realized that I could do this job anywhere.  Anywhere including Disney World.  I had never been attached to New Jersey, where I grew up, at all, and I realized that this was my chance to go for it and live my dream.  I saved up, made my plans, and put all my ducks (a whole lot of ducks) in a row over this past year.  Two weeks ago I moved to an apartment right next door to the Walt Disney World Resort property, and one week after that, secured a massage therapy job in one of the Disney Resorts.  

I hadn’t realized how much I wanted this until I arrived and saw for myself just how well this life fits me.  The weather, the people, the local sights, and of course Disney being right next door all make this my own personal paradise.  I find myself awe-struck at least once a day at the sight of the clouds here; the skies seem to go on forever like giant abstract finger paintings.  Even the monster rainstorms have been a source of amusement for me.  Being used to the way it rains in New Jersey (the skies stay gray for a week and it drizzles depression the entire time) I have been reveling in the huge rainstorms that come and go so quickly.  And while it’s not always rainbows and sunshine (yesterday I killed my first cockroach with a now forever-bent Swiffer), I have been counting my blessings every day since I arrived.  Not only am I close to “Mecca”, but this is also my first apartment; I have been adjusting to the solitary life quite well.  To my great frustration, I have not gone to the parks yet; I’m waiting until I get my Cast Member ID access card (and getting mighty antsy).  Tomorrow is the big day when I officially become a Disney Cast member (again) and really begin my adventure.  For now, I’ve been relaxing and enjoying a short vacation from life.  

Just this morning, I lay swaying in a hammock on the sandy shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon.  A few joyful tears filled my eyes as I surveyed the scene before me.  There were kids playing in the cool sand as quiet waves lapped against the shore.  To my right, far off in the distance, the Magic Kingdom train whistle blew, just barely audible below the sound of the ferryboat arriving at the Polynesian Resort’s dock.  I stared up at the leaves of the palm trees holding me up, rocking back and forth in the tropical breeze, and I let those tears fall.  Because this is it.  This is the dream that I’ve worked toward for the past 10 years.   

I live three miles from Disney World, and for the first time in my life, I am home.

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,
I have not abandoned you, even though you may feel that way as you wipe off the cobwebs and sulk in your corner.  I'm moving, so writing has been halted until I know which way is up and where I live again.  You'll be fine, there's leftover ham in the fridge.  Use coasters.

Love,
Me

A freewriting exercise - Write about a place you've been

As I mentioned in my last post, I have started a 40 day writing exercise.  I felt today's 10 minute writing sprint was good enough to post. 

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When I visited Ireland the first time, it was with my parents.  It was the first time I had been overseas and I wasn’t disappointed.  There was so much there that was different than being home in the US.  Besides the cars being on the wrong side of the street and the other obvious differences, it was the little things that really drew my attention.  Like the fact that not everyone has a phone or a shower there, or a computer for that matter.  I’m sure it’s a bit different with the computers now that it’s over a decade later, but there is still an underlying difference in the way we do things.  The people are so much calmer there, and the lifestyles are so much slower.  It’s as if Americans have forgotten how to just slow down and enjoy their day.  I think people here feel that if they’re not cramming something important or worthwhile into every minute of their day then they’re not working hard enough or wasting time.  Where is the time to smell the roses, to stare at a tree or squirrel in your backyard, to feel the morning sun on your face without having a car pass by and ruin the moment?  

 I enjoyed the people in Ireland very much because they seemed to enjoy themselves.  Not every minute has to be packed with either work or entertainment; there can be a middle ground.  There can be the nothingness in between work and play that puts everything into perspective.  Not having a shower means nothing to some people there.  “It would be wonderful to have one” they say, but it’s not imperative and they go on with their lives without dwelling on it or making a fuss.  I think we could stand to do without some things here in America.  I don’t think the children of today realize just how much they have going for them; then again I’m sure every generation says that about the one after them.  So much technology pervades every part of our day; every ounce of our energy goes into either maintaining the gadgets we have or seeking out the ones we want.  People seem to have forgotten that there was a time when no phones or computers or internet existed, and that the people back then seemed to have been happier with their lives overall.  Maybe they made more time for family, or play, or to simply sit and talk.  How many people these days sit and have one on one conversations anymore?  They either get interrupted by texts or calls, or get bored and do something else, like watch Youtube videos.  It’s sad really, that so few people actually talk to one another that grammar is at an all time low and everyone with a camera thinks they’re a filmmaker, everyone with a keyboard thinks they’re William Shakespeare, and no one can tell the difference.  

 If there’s one thing I took away from visiting Ireland, it’s that we need to keep a part of every day free to just enjoy life.  Stop working, look up from the screen of whatever you’re glued to, and just look around.  People watch, feel the air, take in your surroundings, and if you don’t like them go somewhere else.  There is so much out there that you can miss if you’re looking down at a screen all day.  Look up.

40 Days to more imaginative writing

I just completed Day 1 of a 40 day exercise designed to help you be a more creative writer.  It took me long enough to start it, which annoys me because that seems to be my biggest hurdle right now.  Just being afraid to start.  When I write a blog post, or even think about writing one, I worry about the fact that I don't have a topic to expound on or that what I write will not be interesting.  I need to learn to silence that inner critic, because all it does is stop me from trying or even just playing.  I realized while doing this first exercise that I have not written fiction in years.  I have a notebook full of one page blurbs of ideas, dreams, thoughts, even possible topics for a stand up routine, but none of it has ever been put to use.  I think that should stop soon.  I will go back to that notebook and mine for any nuggets of gold that may have been laid there after waking from an odd dream or having a strange idea pop into my head while doing a massage.  Just starting is the hardest part.  And now that I've started this exercise, it will help me to at least write a little every day.  In fact, just writing for the ten minutes of the exercise made me want to write more, and here I am posting.  So it already has had some good effects. 

I just got back from a week in Orlando with my mother looking for apartments and jobs.  I found a wonderful apartment complex that I'm thrilled about and I can't wait to move in.  The catch 22 that I was caught in; needing a job to be approved for an apartment and needing to live in Orlando before I could interview for jobs, has been solved by my parents signing off for me on the apartment.  We saw some beautiful spas and resorts that I will definitely be applying to, and the area I will be living in could not be nicer.  The apartment is on a quiet, tree-surrounded street free of tourist cars, in literally the backyard of Disney World.  I will be able to see (or at least hear) the fireworks every night. *sigh*  It's finally happening.  My near-lifelong dream of living in Orlando is almost ready to happen.  Every day I lose a little bit more fear of the unknown, and gain a bit more confidence about my ability to make this work.  The next dream after I'm all settled there will be to become fully self-employed; to not work under anyone but myself.  I think it could happen eventually, but I'm hoping sooner than later.  I have to be realistic though; I don't expect to be a booming pet sitting business by the end of one year, and I don't expect to have a novel published in 2 years.  But I do know that when the time is right and I have worked as hard as I can without backing down, then what I want out of life will happen for me. 

Perhaps the thing I have needed all this time was not something to write about, but to give myself permission to write, no matter the subject matter.  That, too, is starting to happen.
Life is good.  Here's to change. Salut!