You know, New Years Resolutions are very quickly becoming a thing of the past, or rather, little symbolic pieces of art depicting broken promises and delusions of grandieur. I'm a victim of this very thing, having made resolutions every year, and forgetting most of them entirely by the next. This year, however, I'm trying exceptionally hard to make different. One of my much needed resolutions is simply to be more proactive...that is, go DO stuff. I've been failing at this for the past two years, and it's time to cut that shit out.
My first trial is upon me, with the rapid onset of MagFest, a videogame convention that I only recently figured out was being held a reasonable distance from my hometown. Attending this convention is one of my personal heroes, a YouTube member called NintendoCapriSun. In short, he's very unassuming...just a 35 year old man who plays video games for a living and posts videos of it on YouTube. He's got a lot of followers/subscribers (Over 167,000 to be exact, and almost 100 million cumulative video views) however, and his average joe to internet fame story is what makes him appealing to many of those that watching him, aside from being an all around nice guy, the kind that many a gamer knows or are themselves. It makes sense to take an opportunity like this to meet the fellow.
To any other person this might seem like the most simple thing in the world...but for me, as I said, it isn't. I should be able to get in my car, my vehicle of infinite freedom, and GO. For whatever reason, that doesn't seem like it's possible. Granted, the place where Magfest is being held would be the farthest I've ever traveled from home on my own, and requires me to go onto road systems completely unknown. That's quite an undertaking, and the cost of this venture would be nothing to scoff at either since admission to the convention for the day is 40 dollars, which again, would be nothing if I were a go-getter with a proper job. So in some way, the odds are stacked against a guy like me, and in some ways, there are no odds. It's obvious I'm not Han Solo.
Of course, when I think of this...the idea of going on a full blown adventure with a destination and an end result, I am reminded of a very good day last summer in which I vowed to find a game called Pikmin 2. This is again connected with the Let's Play circle of Youtube of which I am now apart, since chuggaaconroy was the one who inspired me to seek out this game. The catch was, of course, that this was a game from last generation, and a poor-selling one at that. Needless to say, the average GameStop scroungings yielded no results, so I found the game through an online search, locating one in Severna Park, where my grandmother used to live. So began a quest filled with uncertainty, instinct, and a lesson on how effort is repaid.
I remember that Wednesday afternoon fairly well, setting out on my journey equipped with some badly memorized Google directions and just enough money to do everything I wanted. To get to where I was going, I had to cross the Key Bridge, something I'd never done before while driving, alone or otherwise. It was kind of surreal really, going over that bridge I was familiar with only from the passenger side of the car. Nevertheless, I made it. It only took a few minutes for the adventure to take a twist. You see, althought I had memorized the number of the exit I was supposed to take to get off the highway, my hands steered me down a different one! I panicked just a little bit, but found solace in two things, first and foremost being that I could always find a place to turn around and try again. The second thing was that I had a feeling I was still going the right way. I knew the exit I had taken, despite it not being the one I was directed to use. This was a route well-trodden by my family.
When there are no new experiences to back them up, childhood memories seem foolish. That is what I thought before the day I drove the route beyond the bridge for myself. Driving down those roads, turn after turn infallibly leading me to familiar sights, I realized that all the time I spent absently looking out of the window of my mother's van on the way to Grammy's house were now guiding me along a certain path. I knew the path, sure, but until a certain moment, I didn't know whether or not it was a parth that was going to lead me where I wanted. Lo and behold, I found the place I was looking for, and arrived there after a bit of fumbling around and missing turns, which I'm really good at doing. I couldn't believe it when I arrived. My inner child was there the whole time, guiding me along like me own personal Navi (the fairy, not the blue indians from Avatar).
Then I went inside the place. I still had my MacGuffin to collect. I searched that GameStop high and low, and Pikmin 2 was nowhere to be found. My lips must have pursed with disappointment, and it was at this point that I typically left the store. This was different though. I was not about to be turned away from The Emerald City without sobbing at its gates. Today I was different. Today, I'd gone farther from home than I'd ever been, even paid for tolls, been guided by my inner child to my destination, and done it all by myself. So I made a last ditch effort. I asked the clerk whether or not the game was in store. After searching a few tubs and drawers behind the counter, he concluded that the game was not at this store. Then I asked him to check for the closest location that had the game, knowing that he'd use the very same search that had led me here. Mind you, this is more demanding and inquisitive than I usually am, by a long shot. Typical me would have quit after hearing him say that they didn't have the game. Not today though. Today I thought unusually well on my feet, and within moments had the clerk squinting at the screen in confusion.
Then, turning behind him and searching one last tub, he pulled the game I'd been searching for. I paid that forty bucks, which is seriously overpriced for an old game like Pikmin 2, and left, victorious as hell. I traveled back along the route I'd been guided along earlier, digging through my change collection just to pay for the toll going home, and got home again on very successful person. That moment, the one when the clerk went back and found the game, was really something. There I was, at wit's end, having nearly gotten myself lost quite a ways from home all for a game that wasn't even at the place I was led to believe it would be, and the guy just confirms the worst.
It was the kind of thing that only happened due to a series of special conditions. I only got Pikmin 2 because I willed it to be so. I'd only been successful because of very simple, innate bravery and sense of adventure. If everything had gone according to my plan, I never would have gotten the game. I would have looked around and walked out, just like I'd done a few times before in local stores. Instead, things happened that turned my lazy memory into perseverance, and my childhood daydreams into valuable insight. This all caused me to change like Yugi into Yami. It was a rare occurance of me transforming into a version of me that dies with every day I spend glued to this computer. Only after a journey that had been more exciting than I anticipated could I have asked that clerk not only to look for the game in stock, but to direct him to the very thing that ignited the fire of adventure inside me. See, that's what drove this whole thing. I knew that, no matter how this journey ended up, it'd be more of an adventure than anything I'd ever done on my own. Going so far from home for a $40 old game is borderline stupid, but I did it because I'd never done it before.
Everything on that day when better than I could have hoped, mishaps and all. It was magic. It was something you only find in cliched stories, which you figure out are only cliched until you experience such a thing for yourself. On that drive home, I spouted all manner of triumphant words, from "I can't believe that just fucking happened" to "I'm chuffed as hell." It's a stupid ass little story of a boy who went to buy a videogame in reality, but in my world, it's the story of a hero seeking out a fantastic treasure and gaining something much more in the end. I got Pikmin, sure, and to be honest I don't even like the game all that much. But God damn do I love telling this story.
That is why I must ensure I've determined what my options REALLY are before I allow this opportunity to pass me by. Fate becons me once more, daring me to venture into lands unknown, taking away the childhood guides I had on my last journey. This could be the fabled story of a boy who becomes a man and makes his own experiences. Adding fuel to the fires of adventure was something I did today, back when I still believed I'd have a friend to come with me, which would ensure I'd make the trip. Of course, that's one of the reasons why me going is such a big deal: I've been trying to recruit a traveling partner for a good few days now and gotten no response whatsoever. This is reflecting back on my Social Ninja status, and it's incredibly appaling that the only people I feel I can approach about anything are people that don't even live in my country...all of them, mind you, would have agreed to accompany me, were they a little closer.
Anyway, I help light the fires of adventure my sending NintendoCapriSun a message about where I might be able to find him at the convention. And he responded, which is kind of a big thing. Consider this, what if I got a response to something that would be made irrelevant by my absence at MagFest? That'd be one hell of a wasted message to a hero who gets plenty of them per day. Granted, his response said that I'd be able to find him through use of a technology I might not have access to, it's still exciting.
It was this message that REALLY lit that adventurous spirit in me and awakened the transformed version of me that got to breathe fresh air in on that day last summer. Given all of this I seriously wonder how, at this time tomorrow, my sights will be set somewhere other than MagFest. This time tomorrow, I should have the Triforce of Courage drawn onto my hand as a symbol of my sincerest attempts to revive the New Years Resolution concept for myself. Also since that journey, I've taken in Gurren Lagann, a show about screwing destiny and convention and making your own way. Taking myself to MagFest is slowly becoming something I was destined to do....something I MUST do, rather than just something I want to do. More importantly to me, however, is that it's becoming something that I CAN do. Two days ago I was worried that not having a friend to go with me would end my shot for another year. Now I'm feeling kind of like I did when I couldn't find Pikmin 2 on that shelf in GameStop...like me doing this on my own is the best thing that could happen.
Adventure Calls....will I answer?
WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?
or better yet, since no one seems to matter...
WHO THE HELL DO I THINK I AM???
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