Articles

I Was
A Teenage Adventure Gamer

by Matthew Desmond
December 20, 2001

That
Time In Your Life….

Well, I apologize for not
having written this column recently. I was held up due to a number
of pre-Christmas duties that every high school Senior is stuck with
at my high school. To go to college or not go to college, that is
the question. To apply, to wait, to, recieve an answer, to shout with
joy or weep with anguish. And that is as far as the Shakespeare crap
goes.

Yes, it is the time to
fill out all of those silly applications (and yes, some of them I’ve
been tempted to fill out are very silly.) Answering questions that
need not be asked, “Do you live with your parents?” Yes.
“Are your parents dead?” No. “If you answered ‘yes’
to the last question, please explain the circumstances.” Who
the Hell are you guys supposed to be? A college or a morgue?

It’s also time to go to
the colleges and listen to the admissions people try and talk you
into going to their college. And if their college is really horrible
and they are desperate for students to apply? They shower you with
gifts. I don’t know how many college t-shirts I have in my drawers…..enough,
that’s….for sure.

Not that I’m complaining
or anything, this is a busy time of year. To those of you who have
gone through it, I now have a greater appreciation of what sort of
hell it can be. Especially with some of those acceptance letters.
“Please send $50 to the office of admissions by xxxx.” Fifty
dollars sounds reasonable. Another letter I received asked me to send
$150 to them by April 1st, 2002. Now, please realize, I have applied
to five colleges so far. If I get accepted to all five, and statistically
speaking, that is really inaccurate, I’d be lucky to get into 3 out
of 5 or maybe 4 out of 5, and I sent in the deposit for all 5 of them
with intentions of going, including the room and board fee deposit,
that’d be well over $1000.

Now, I admit, I have been
accepted to two colleges so far and I mailed in 3 applications last
week, so, I won’t hear from the other 3 until after the New Year.
The two colleges are University of Maine at Presque Isle for criminal
justice with a concentration in pre-law and Thomas College with business
management (I swear I did not know that the major was actually ‘business
management’) with a concentration in pre-law. And so far, the most
lucrative offer is U.M.P.I. (paying the $50 tutition fee is right
up my alley), not to mention the fact that there are a lot of professors
that used to be lawyers up there. So, I’m probably going to go there.

Now, as for video games,
have I had time for video games? Yes indeedy! I’ve been playing a
lot of oldies for right now, games like Grim Fandango, Leisure
Suit Larry (brilliant game!) and some others. So far, I’m hooked
on Grim Fandango. I’ve also been playing SpyCraft, it’s
a pretty good yarn. Unrealistic and everything, but the storyline
is incredible. And let me say one more thing, have a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.