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Nothing makes sense, everything is wrong, and you just need the world to stop. If you haven't been there, your day will come, guaranteed. And that's when you, like Jarrod, will thank whatever you believe in that you've got a hobby like gaming. Stay safe, amigo.
Video games mean something special to me. Some of my earliest childhood memories come from playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES with my parents. We stayed up way past my bedtime, taking turns trying to conquer each level, and bonded as a family in ways I can't even describe. It's amazing to me how something often viewed as a toy, a distraction for the chronically immature, can have so much power.
As I find myself shipping out for overseas duty again, I've thought back to my last deployment to Iraq. I spent six grueling months there in 2010 that changed me for the better...and for the worse. When I came home, I found that my wife had left me, taking off with most of my stuff. What she left behind was mostly destroyed. My cat, Baxter, had been locked up in my bedroom without food or water, barely alive when I found him. My entire world caved in.
Struggling with my experiences in Iraq on top of walking into that situation, I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to lay down and let life pass me by. I did something else instead.
Picking through the remains, I found that somehow my soon-to-be ex-wife left my video games intact. She loathed them with every fiber of her being, but they managed to escape as she tore our home apart.
So I did the only thing I could think of. I hooked up my SNES and -- with Baxter in my lap, being nursed back to health on a special formula from the vet -- started playing Super Mario All-Stars.
Through Mario and his adventures, I managed to find myself again...that drive to pick myself up and push forward instead of calling it quits. All night long, I played. I paused every so often to feed Baxter and then plowed through another stage. For the longest time, I felt foolish for having so deep a connection to a video game and believing Super Mario All-Stars saved my life that first night. I thought I was the only one who thought like this.
I was wrong.
Ashly Burch from Hey Ash Whatcha Playin'? started a blog several months ago talking about on this exact topic. How Games Saved My Life collects stories from people all over the world talking about their experiences with video games and how gaming impacted their lives in meaningful ways. Ash has her own tale posted, and my story can be found there as well, but we're just the tip of a very big iceberg.
