Not for the ages above 25

Ok . . . The key word for today, is addiction, specifically internet addiction. Or maybe it’s more along the lines of addiction to games.

There is so much I want to do but I always opt video games ( or more better put, WoW ) ahead of the things I want to do or accomplish. I don’t really know why but I think I might have a good idea. Video games don’t require a lot of thought, planning or money. If you already bought the game, just play it. It has become so easy for me to just fall into that rut of constant gaming.

So, who cares right? For a long time, I didn’t. I just figured that I will always have more time later. I will always have more times to start up that new hobby or work on that second language I want to learn, or get involved in school again, or half a million other things which fail to come to my mind now. Even if time was not an issue, there are other things that are beginning to suffer. Small parts of myself are, for a lack of a better way, rotting away. I don’t use those other skills very much so I have become out of practice. On that same note, my relationships with other people outside of WoW have suffered. I hate to say it, but even my relationship with my wife has suffered to some extent.

I did not really think about this until recently. Of course, your friendly neighborhood Raven was not really thinking about it. It was the White Raven that really brought it to my attention. I believe that she has brought it to my attention before but it’s only now that I am really hearing it. I am hearing it because for the first time I am also seeing the affect it has not only on me but the people around me. It has been hard to imagine that something as simple as a video game can have such a negative affect on someone.

I let myself get so wrapped up in this game, in this imaginary world that I did not even create, that I have become so blind to the things that were so important to me. Friend, family, love ones, my writing, my creativity, and sometimes even my health has suffered from Gaming and just surfing the net. I am 35 now and should have a good grasp on all these things. I have always wanted to write a book but now I don’t even have a storyline premise, let alone characters. Certainty, nothing hatched from my own mind.

I guess it really is time to grow up a little. . .

“As a young boy, I played with childish things. But as I became a man, I set those childish things aside.”

I don’t know who said that. . . I don’t even know if that is the proper quote . . . but if not the proper quote, it still conveys the idea.

I don’t have to give up childish things but perhaps I do need to set them aside for some time and concentrate on things far more important than a world that is not mine.

I love my wife very much and I have realized that I have started to let my relationship go the way that I allowed many other things because of my addiction to gaming. I will not give up my wife when all I have to do is open my eyes and listen . . . and pay attention to real things that matter.