If you were to walk into a small-town GameStop in West Virginia in the year 2013, you might find a young GameStop employee being embarrassed by his mother taking pictures of him behind the counter, while telling his boss, “He has always wanted to work here! Now say cheese, son!” The 18-year-old, who was unfortunately me, begrudgingly grinned.

However, my mother wasn’t wrong, I had always wanted to work there. I got to rent out games in a post blockbuster world, and for free not to mention! Not only was I finally a GameStop employee, but I was an employee during a pivotal year for the gaming industry. If you’ve been gaming for over a decade you might already know what legendary events took place that year.

A new generation of gaming was upon us, and it was Xbox One vs PlayStation 4. Eminem’s song, Survival, was playing on repeat in the GameStop for the new Call of Duty: Ghosts release.  We got a demo PlayStation 4 for the front of the store that showed off the mind-blowing visual effects of Killzone Shadow Fall. Lastly, and most definitely the biggest game of all, Grand Theft Auto 5. I’ve never seen such a turn out for a midnight release. After the mayhem of the midnight release, I was welcomed by my friends waiting at the entrance for me to get off work.

We retreated to my house so we could start playing Grand Theft Auto 5. I was a busy eighteen-year-old, but my fondest memories during that time was with my best friends shooting their newly upgraded sports cars with an RPG. Day after day when I got off work or school, it was back to GTA5. I never wanted it to end.  

Two years passed and then I met the woman of my dreams. I thought surely the second she saw my collector statue adorned bedroom and was welcomed with a Halo 3 Master Chief helmet staring her right in the face as she entered, she would surely run away. But I would learn later my passionate nature surrounding all things nerdy was something that made her fall in love with me.

Tackling life as two young adults was very difficult. People say not to get married young because you need to grow up before you get together, but we were two young mature people who matured and grew together. We learned what to do and more importantly what not to do with things such as finances.

You must pay not only rent, but electric, water, sewage, trash, internet, car, car insurance, phone bill, hospital bills… and oh wait, did we budget gas? You also forget to consider the fact that going through the drive-through every day will quickly empty your bank account. Despite the challenges, I still found time to do the things I loved most. 

Fast forward another two years and my wife wakes me up at 2:30 a.m. in a panic. Electric is out and the sound of thunder and hail outside is deafening. One would think I’m being violently shaken awake to take cover from an incoming tornado, but nope, she awoke me with a urine covered stick shoved in my face screaming, “I’m pregnant!”.

I jumped up and said “what!?” and she replied with a lifelong care plan for the child all the way up to college savings. I said, “hold up, give me a minute.” she responded, “do you think we should start stock piling diapers now?” I replied, “let me pee first.” I attempted to locate the bathroom in the dark, but instead stepped in a large pile of dog poop. As my wife thought out loud, “Maybe my brother has some old baby clothes we can have”

I shouted through my chaos fogged mind, “WE NEED TO GET TO AN IHOP!” With a bewildered look on her face, she replied “okay?” All I knew at that time was that I couldn’t process this news in a dim lit, poop covered apartment while my wife planned out the future of our child.  

Despite not being able to see 5 feet ahead of us in the pouring rain, we eventually made our way to I-Hop. We were quickly seated in the shady restaurant at 3:00 a.m. I sat there, looked in my wife’s eyes, and the reality of what was about to happen sunk in.

That same nerdy guy whose biggest ambitions in life only 6 years ago was to be a seasonal employee at GameStop, was now going to be a father. I’m happy to say this was the only time I have ever cried tears of joy in an I-Hop at 3 a.m. in the morning.  

As we approached the due date, when we weren’t busy getting ready for the baby or working 14-hour shifts, I was playing Assassins Creed Odyssey. A glorious hundred hours sunk into this magnificent game, and I could see myself putting in another hundred. I remember riding my horse with its unicorn skin through the hills of Greece thinking, “I wonder if I’ll have much time to ride unicorns after the baby gets here?”.

  To anyone who isn’t a lifelong gamer, this is a non-issue. But to the same guy who dedicated his life to playing GTA5 with his friends, it was going to be a big life change. I worried the days of me pulling all nighters with my friends and riding unicorns in Greece till the sun rises would soon be over.  

On May 29^th, 2019, my daughter was born. She forever changed our lives for the better. Adjusting to parenthood is a difficult thing. You now must think of things such as not leaving your Xbox elite controller on the coffee table because joysticks are a choking hazard. A lot of people ask in the beginning stages ‘how do you juggle it?’ The answer to that question is simple, it’s different for everyone.

You find your flow. I know for me playing single player games was essential during the newborn phases. You need to be able to pause the game to change a diaper, give the baby a bottle when they’re hungry, rock them when they’re upset. Once my daughter finally fell asleep in my arms, I was free to roam the hills of Greece on my unicorn once again.

Side note, it is pivotal that you DO NOT play games such as Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Sekiro, or any other games that make you want to pull your hair out while holding a sleeping baby. That poor child could fly out of your arms at any given moment when a Melania’s blade strikes you down for the 10,000^th time. Just another pro tip for you. 

Juggling being a husband, father, working 50-60 hours a week and still finding the time to play games was quite the achievement if you ask me. Then enters baby number 2. 

My son was born on November 10^th, 2020. Yep, only a year later. We wanted them to be close together. With that decision came the price of running through a fire.

Or, as we like to put it: “We have two babies to take care of at the same time. They both crapped their pants, are screaming bloody murder, we can’t hear what they are saying because Moana is on blast, someone elbows my mug and now I’m on fire from the coffee… Dear mother of baby Jesus, please grant me the sweet embrace of death.” a long-winded title, but we like it. All jokes aside, we were lucky to have such easy-going babies.

Once again, I was faced with the question, will I have time for myself anymore? It had been so long since I hopped online with the boys, surely it will be next to impossible now. 

November 2021, my son was 2 and my daughter 3. I played 3 games in total that year, one of them being my favorite games of all time, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. After rolling the credits I was faced with something we all go through after finishing a great show or game. The question of, “what do I do with my life now? Nothing will ever compare to the masterpiece I just witnessed!”

I didn’t play any games or do anything on my own for a while after that. At this point in fatherhood, finding time for date nights with the wife let alone time for hobbies was extremely difficult. The duties I signed up for were weighing on me heavily.

Family drama flooded our life, financial struggles added black bags under my eyes at an alarming rate, work kept me from my family so much that at one point I hadn’t seen my son for a week, and he looked like a different person the next time I did see him. My anxiety and depression kept me from fully enjoying the small amount of time I had with them. Video Games were the last of my worries.  

My wife took me to the side one day and told me, “If you don’t take care of yourself how can you take care of us? When was the last time you played a game? It’s okay to sometimes come home and say, ‘I need a minute to myself before diving into the evening duties.'”. It was at this point in time that I made it a priority to find time to relax.

No matter what you have going on in life, it’s important to make time for yourself. Not just for your own benefit, but for your family too. No matter what your hobby is, I encourage you to go do that thing today. It’s important for your mental health. As for the question, ‘when do you find the time to game?’

I’ll just say this. While I write this my daughter is sitting beside me playing the Bluey video game while my son is running around the house crying because he wasn’t allowed to have more than two Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Once I’m done writing I’m going to play with her and maybe try to play my own game on a handheld later while they watch Moana for the quadrillionth time.

I hope your main take away from this story is not a story about time management, but a story about appreciating life in all its seasons. It’s been a while since I pulled an all nighter with my friends, but my daughter just asked me to assist her through a hard part in a video game. So yeah, I’m living the dream and I hope it never ends.