I play League of Legends, which is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and it’s extremely addicting. No, wait, sorry—it’s infuriating.
Along with League of Legends, I am in a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) group with three of my best friends from back home. The connection we built through D&D is something I brought back to Ferris with me in hopes of having an anchor to reality when school became too stressful.
Oh, I’m funny.
As with most games, there’s a point where adrenaline or lack of sleep causes a player to rage and become slightly irrational. When you add in an 18 credit hour semester, pessimistic family and friends and a habit of not adhering to bedtime, the ease of irritation becomes untamable.
An instance arose recently where I could sense something was going to become more than it appeared and I attempted to talk our D&D troupe out of the impending combat. They didn’t agree with me and called me a coward. Tension began to form in our well-oiled machine of a team, so I had my character leave. The battle ensued and things began to look daunting.
What did I do? After getting to say “I told you so,” I came back to help and died.
I found myself deciding whether to make a new character and stay or just back out entirely of playing. One friend told me that apparently the three of them had been on eggshells around me for a while now, but just because of a hiccup in the game, he didn’t want to lose our friendship.
So I talked to the Game Master (GM) and he asked what was going on with me besides school that could have caused me to be so out-of-character. I said family, relationships, my job and worrying about the future.
The GM compared me to 2-in-1 shampoo, adding in if it were also body wash, shaving cream and moisturizer. When you keep adding in responsibilities, you lose the ability to be the best you can be in each category because of all the other demands.
Slow down and be in the now, he told me. Be the shampoo.
I am now taking a hiatus from D&D. I will be sitting in on the game sessions to see what unfolds but will not be officially rejoining until either Thanksgiving or winter break. Until then, I will choose the student shampoo off of my shelf of demands.