Do you like to write? Then you should be following Normal Happenings, who posts regular daily writing prompts called "Inklings". They always get me thinking, so I like to indulge every now and then. (Also I'm part of the site's year-long "The Characters That Define Us" collaboration, so follow along for that, too!)
Anyway, here's today's prompt:
“Twenty-Four Seven”
Write 24 talking points between current you and you from seven years ago. Consider teaching yourself something you’ve picked up since then.
This sounds like a challenge! Me from seven years ago would be me in January 2013… which was leading up to a fairly turbulent time in my life, to be honest, so this is probably gonna get a bit personal. But oh well. In for a penny and all that.
1. Don't take happiness for granted.
Okay, January 2013 Pete. Things are a bit… wobbly right now. In a few months, you're going to get what feels like the opportunity of a lifetime; your former boss Jaz Rignall is going to reach out to you and invite you to be part of the launch of USgamer, Eurogamer's American spinoff site. It will seem like a dream come true — and, for a while, it will be.
But don't take that for granted.
A year later, this opportunity will be taken from you, through no fault of your own. There will be nothing you can do about it. It will suck. But…
2. Dark times can be inspirational.
January 2013 Pete, you've already been through some dark times circa 2010, so you probably know this already, but it bears repeating: dark times can bring the greatest inspiration. What is going to happen next year will suck, there's no two ways about it, but it will also inspire you to create something that is entirely your own, and that you can be proud of.
3. Be true to yourself.
The situation that will arise next year could probably be avoided if you put your head down and parrot the corporate line rather than using your platform to represent an underappreciated viewpoint — since, although no-one has specifically said this at any point, it's fairly obvious from a 2020 perspective that you were pushed out because of your willingness to give time and attention to Japanese games that are treated poorly by the rest of the mainstream press.
But it won't feel good to deny yourself, and the audience that you build who respect you for being true to yourself won't appreciate that, either.
4. Some people just won't like you. They don't matter.
As much as you'd like to get along with everyone, there will be people out there who just don't get along with you. This is often through no fault of your own, and incidents can arise with no real provocation. It will suck to encounter these situations, but remember that people who barely know you and have no respect for you should not have any influence over your life whatsoever. They do not matter. Do not give them any attention.
5. Some people do like and respect you. They do matter.
It's easy to feel alone in this modern age, even when you have an active online social life. But know that the things you do — and the things that you're going to do — are going to touch the lives of others, and they are going to appreciate that. You're going to make some lifelong friends by being true to yourself, and that is something you need to focus on when times get challenging.
6. You have Asperger's.
You know how you've been struggling to understand how to deal with social situations for pretty much your whole life, forever getting trapped in your own head, overanalysing circumstances and often talking yourself out of taking social risks? Yeah, that's Asperger Syndrome, and a few years down the line you'll recognise this for what it is. It will explain a lot of things about yourself and make you feel a bit better about some parts of your personality you currently don't like all that much.
7. If you get a bad vibe from a situation, get out.
A while after your departure from USgamer, you're going to find yourself with a job at an energy company. You will get a very bad vibe from your initial impressions, and this bad vibe will prove to be entirely justified as you systematically get bullied out of your role by a manager that doesn't understand or respect mental health issues, and a corporate culture more concerned with following arbitrary, universally applied rules than the actual welfare of its employees. Get out before this happens.
8. Day jobs are boring, but this can be a blessing in disguise.
Most of the daily duties in the day jobs of this world could probably be accomplished with two- or three-hour workdays, making for a lot of tedious downtime that can easily weigh down on your mind. However, if you're discreet, you can also make use of this tedious downtime for things you actually want to do. Maybe not playing games or making videos, but writing stuff looks like work!
9. Engaging with the community will make people want to enjoy your work.
You can write and make videos all you want, but if you don't get your online "face" known around the community, no-one will have any real reason to check out any of your stuff. Follow some blogs and channels that you enjoy, leave some likes and some comments, make some friends. It'll really pay off over time.
10. YouTube is fun!
Save up a bit of money and grab yourself some capture hardware and a decent microphone. Making YouTube videos about games is a lot of fun.
11. Podcasting is fun!
And while you have that microphone, you might as well start doing some podcasting again, too. You don't need to hide behind other people; you are capable of leading a show.
12. Upgrading your motherboard and CPU will have a bigger effect on Final Fantasy XIV's framerate than upgrading your graphics card.
You're not playing it yet, but when you do, you'll thank me for this advice.
13. Friendships wax and wane.
There are people in your life right now who feel like they'll always be there. They, unfortunately, won't be — and you won't understand why. That is just sometimes how it is. Conversely, however, there are also people you haven't met yet who will become very important to you. These things have a way of balancing themselves out.
14. Don't have kids.
Your friends who have kids will become boring and never want to do anything. Do not have kids. Enjoy your life, because God knows you've struggled enough already.
15. Don't buy a zillion board games.
Related to the above: your friends who you play board games with will have kids and become boring, making a significant proportion of your large collection fairly pointless to keep around because they need a minimum of three players.
16. Sell board games on BoardGameGeek, not eBay.
It's much easier and quicker.
17. 2014 onwards is going to suck for certain parts of media discussion.
Certain happenings in 2014 will prove to be a tipping point for public trust in the mainstream media. Even if you do not get involved, you will still somehow get dragged into all this by association and proxy, and it's entirely possible you'll lose friends over it. It will suck, but remain true to yourself and prove yourself to be someone with integrity and honesty, and you'll get through it and probably make some new friends in the process.
18. Personal writing has much greater value than corporate media pieces.
Related to the above: you're already drifting away from the mainstream media having been extremely frustrated with their bad attitude over the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle, but I'll just confirm that you're doing the right thing here. You'll get much more out of reading personal accounts by individual bloggers than heavily edited, word-counted articles on corporate sites.
19. Be a force for positivity, not negativity.
I know I've said that a lot of things are going to suck — and they are. But the best way to battle negativity is positivity. There's going to be a lot of negativity around in the coming years; it's going to become fashionable, even. Do your part to stand out by focusing on the positive rather than the negative.
20. Twenty-four is a lot of things to put on a list.
When you think it sounds like a good idea to write a list consisting of 24 items, bear in mind that it will probably take a bit longer than you think it might.
21. Go to Digitiser Live.
You won't know what I'm talking about for a good few years yet, but when the opportunity arises, take it. You won't regret it, even though the prospect of it will be scary.
22. Buy that book of Nier: Automata piano scores before it gets expensive.
That's right, there's going to be a new Nier game — bet you never thought that would happen! When you see the piano score book become available, snatch it up before it becomes extremely expensive.
23. Get cats.
You already know this is a good idea, but just do it.
24. Keep writing.
It will bring you consistent happiness, relief, catharsis, entertainment, joy and the opportunity to make new friends. Never stop.
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