Do you see yourself as a leader?
If I’m honest, a very reluctant one. I would tackle the role but am not one to use it maliciously to lord over others. Don’t walk behind me like sheep; walk with and beside me. I don’t care to be served but rather to serve. That’s sound leadership; to not feed one’s ego and feed the needs of others instead.
How do you express your gratitude?
I verbally say it, make a meal or hugs. Nothing massive or epic. Not every form of gratitude needs to be a grandiose gesture.
Did you guys think I was going to give you a thesis?
Describe one simple thing you do that brings joy to your life.
This one is easy! Video games. Picture this — you’ve had a long day at work, you’ve taken time to bond with your kid and your cat. You’ve had your social battery drained significantly by dealing with folks on and off through your shift and you need to unplug from the world.
That’s the magic of a video game. You get to disconnect, even for a few hours, from the rest of the world and de-stress your body. If you’ve been standing all day? You get to sit. If you’re runnin’ and gunnin’, now you’re sitting still. If you’re in a constant state of forcing a straight back with your chest out? You can finally relax a bit.
There are worlds that you never experience that a game can immerse you into. There’s things you’ll see that reality can never provide and all of this…without drugs. Whether it’s the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario Bros., The Land of Shadow in Elden Ring or the upside down version of Dracula’s Castle in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, you’re taken for a ride as far detached from reality as you can.
Once that ride ends, I experience a sense of relief where, after I get sleep, I wake up and have a refilled mental battery to start a new day.
