My New Secondlife

After a four mile walk from La Grange Pk. to the train station and then a twenty minute train ride to Union Station, then another three mile walk to class I arrived at 916 S. Wabash, the Interactive Arts and Media "department". I wasn't sure what to expect here at Columbia College. I was a little worried it would be like my previous college Lewis University, where the teachers were twenty years or more out of touch with the profession they taught. Walking into class I immediately felt at home, being greeted by the other students and talking about what games we played with the teacher.

  One of the first things we did in class was jump onto secondlife.com and make our avatar. We then got our self familiar with the controls and layout of the secondlife world. I couldn't believe what I was doing, in class and playing video games, wow! But that wasn't all, I was learning how the world of games worked, something I have wanted to learn for as long as I could remember.

  I'm 28 years old, I've been playing video games since I could remember but never considered pursuing a career around them. Not that I didn't want a career in game development but I just never thought of it as a career, if that makes sense. It took me a while to finally get into college as I have been on my own financially since high school. I've always loved flying as my grandfather was a mechanic for United and never stopped talking about flight. It only made sense that I go to Lewis University since that was where my grandfather graduated from back in 1947. Unfortunately flight as a career wasn't for me, I did get my private pilots license while I was there but I soon realized that was as far as I wanted to go. I was left to think about what I wanted to do for a living again. No matter how many ideas I came up with I never felt confident about any of them. Until I was playing Battlefield 3 with my brother and brought up how I was having trouble figuring out what I really wanted to do. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, duh, games! I've been playing games since 1984, I have played almost every system made since then and even before then. Every time I'm upset or stressed I jump on my 360 or PS3 or computer and all my troubles seem to fade away.

  Needless to say being in a class that revolves around gaming and game design just feels right. As I had said before, I was a little nervous with anticipation wondering what was in store for me. But for the first time  since I could remember I finally feel like I belong. When I leave class for the day and head home I don't feel like I just got out of class, instead I feel a little down like I left a friends house after playing online for hours. Even though It's a long walk home and a long walk back to school I'm more than happy to do it because I love what I'm doing, and that's what you need to make it a career.