This is a bit unconventional, but yes, that's right. Yesterday marked my 24th birthday. I wasn't able to make it to the computer to write, but one day late is fine for a birthday post, I suppose. But it wasn't just my birthday; yesterday marked an occasion that to me is just as important. June 23rd, 2009 marks my 21st year as a gamer. So today, I thought I'd relate to you the story of how I started as a gamer, and talk about what gaming means to me.

For my third birthday, my parents decided they would get their son an NES, released in North America just a year earlier. With it came the first game I remember playing: Super Mario Bros. Now mind you, it wasn't until some years later that I would consider myself a gamer. When I got it, I was apparently playing the hell out of my NES. Looking back now, I don't think I was a gamer yet. It would take someone else to become as much of an enthusiast as I am today. But that aside, let's fast-forward a little bit. Around my second year with the NES, My grandfather was a few years into his retirement. As my mother put it, he was completely bored with the entire affair.For a man who had spent his life in such professions as firefighting, the military, and security for a big company, sitting around doing nothing didn't exactly suit him; nor should it have.

As the story goes, my mother thought letting him try my NES with me while watching me now and then would be a good idea to keep him from becoming completely restless with his new lifestyle. As the story goes, as soon as he touched it, he couldn't put it down. Within a few days, he went out and bought one of his own, along with a copy of Super Mario Bros. He spent the better part of the next year trying to master the game: learning the tricks and secrets, trying to get better scores, even going so far as to videotape his runs through the later castles to try and get the best time possible. And it didn't stop there.

So, in the first couple of years after getting my NES, I was exposed to games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, The Legend of Zelda, at my grandfather's all played with a meticulous attention to detail; with graphing paper, pencils, rulers in hand. I remember thinking "Whoa, this is really cool." my young mind could never imagine.

That's probably why I'm sitting here, writing about this today. Since my visits playing NES games with my grandfather I've always had an interest in gaming; I never go more than a few days without playing something.

At the beginning of this post, I said I'd discuss what gaming meant to me.

To be honest, I'm not really sure. All I know is it's not for escapisim, or to show off, to compete, or anything along those lines. I think, to me, gaming is a way for me to relive a time, and company of a person I can never forget.

This one's for you, grandpa John.

-Musai