Revelation of the Career Kind

On the left, what I would rather be doing. On the right, what I am doing.

Approximately 20 minutes ago, I stumbled onto the amazing fact that I have a friend who's day job is professionally described as "quality control". Her primary objective upon stepping within the walls of the workplace is to protect and insure integrity. Constraints and limitations are minimal.

She works for Nintendo. She tests games for Wii. All. Day. Long.

Now, I'm sure that her job is not as cushy as I presume it to be (I have not confirmed with the source), however, I am certain that it sounds more appealing to be PLAYING from 9-5 as opposed to being confined to a cubicle for the same period of time glued to a chair, Excel and Lotus Notes.

When I was growing up, my parents instilled within me the value of a good education. Furthermore, they encouraged the career path of a working professional as they both had done. But I missed something along the way. I failed to put two & two together. As a high school student, I was the student who did enough to get by with an A-. I want to emphasize the "-" because my efforts never deserved or warranted the natural "A" or even "A+". On the distribution curve, that was saved for the over-achievers and naturally brilliant. No, I spent a vast majority of my waking hours in grade school in front of a TV and video game console with controller in hand (and still found time to dabble in sports). Unlike the spoiled brats of the 21st century, my controller had to be physically connected to the console. Anyway, I digress. How was I so very blind to merge the value of education and career with the preexisting passion of video-gaming.

I use sports as my key witness. If I had the God-given ability to run a 4.32 second 40-yard dash or be able to throw a baseball 100+ mph, I would clearly not be sitting here typing this garbage right now. The point here is that so many individuals have dedicated their lives to eating, drinking, and sleeping a certain sport to be one of the best and "make a career" out of it. When an athlete says his dream has always been to be in the NFL, I'm convinced that the dream is not to be part of the highest level of competition, but rather, to indirectly communicate that he wants to play football for a living. Why wouldn't you want to spend your life doing what you love? (Now THAT has to sound familiar to all of us). The cornerstone of this analogy is to equate the idea that sports are games just as video games are games. Albeit, the physical toll and punishment is quite different while seated (or standing to play Wii bowling).

I spent countless hours as a child/collegian glued to my Playstation. It boggles my mind that though I put so much time into gaming that I never took the step to link the games with my studies. Why should I have been taking "breaks" to play PS2? That should have been my homework! Devil's advocate would say that it's just a hobby. But I define a hobby as an activity that one does for a "few hours a week", not a few hours a day.

Maybe it's not too late, but I'm catching the economy (and this segment of my life) at a very curious time. Switching careers altogether is probably the worst decision I can make. I'm also living in the wrong part of the country to make this delusional fantasy a reality...

...and now, back to the Excel spreadsheet....