I’ve always been distinctly me. Being YOU isn’t always easy, in fact being you can be more difficult than just doing your best to blend in. My hobbies have ranged from car racing, which sidenote is how I met my husband of 14 years, to collecting Asian ball jointed dolls. As you can imagine having such niche interests can make carrying on a Monday morning conversation difficult.
“Hey did you have a good weekend? Do anything fun?”
“Yeah! I visited Eorzea and became embroiled in the center of a plot to kill the sultana Nanamo Ul Namo, seventeenth in the line of Ul.”
So in encouraging you all to embrace your YOU, I’ll share some of what makes me ME as well as hopefully letting those of you who might also be weird like me know that there are people out there who appreciate, and maybe even love what makes you weird. However, they usually have a sense of humor of their own, see below:
Anyone here really like playing video games? Did seeing Bethesda tease Elder Scrolls VI at E3 fill you with childlike hope and joy? No? Does the popularity of Fortnite make you cringe? Yes?
I get it not many in this room spend their evenings playing video games, but trust me, there ARE plenty of us out there who still LOVE playing video games as an adult. This can be hard for “normies” to understand, especially if they don’t know the rush of playing competitively.
Maybe your perception of video gamers is people who spend most of their day in the basement in front of a screen semi-isolated from the world through a headset.
Let me invite you to dive into that world with me. Through my eyes see the vibrant landscape in front of me, through my ears hear the bosses scream for you and your teams’ demise.
Melee get back in, tank taunt the add, in your spots for flame rend, ranged out to the marker to soak blazing eruption. I scramble to comply with the directive for ranged, thankfully I have my portal up and off CD and can teleport quickly closer to the position. Triumphantly (and with a great feeling of relief) I make it to the ranged marker in time to soak.
The boss is entering the burn phase, that’s what we refer to the last 15% of a bosses health. Right now, we’re the closest we’ve ever gotten to killing this boss and you can hear the group queue up their mics with KILL IT BOYS, LET’sGOOO, USE PERSONALS, ALL HEALING CD’s AS SOON AS THEY’RE UP, followed by incoherent shouts of near primal joy as the boss falls over and achievements light up my screen.
When my guild killed the final boss of the raid we finished 11/11M US #293 for Tier 21.
You’re wondering: What the hell is she talking about?
I’ll do my best to explain. Hi, my name is Janice and I am a level 110 Human Warlock – ItsTea. In two weeks Battle For Azeroth releases and I’ll begin my journey to 120 and Tier 22. By now, if it isn’t clear let me make it clear I’m referring to my character in World of Warcraft, a game I’ve played and loved dearly for the past 10 years. In World of Warcraft, my Human Warlock has collected some of the rarest titles and defeated the hardest content the developers of the game can create. You see, I’m a mythic raider. ItsTea belongs to a guild called <The Squirrel Mafia> our raid consists of 20 people prepared to defend the realm of Azeroth against its foes two days a week.
And yes, I’m a major nerd. 🙂
A corner of my life has been reserved for playing games for as long as I can remember. My older sister had an Atari 2600. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the cabinet television playing games like Pitfall, Popeye, and Jungle Hunt. One day my dad took us to Target and we bought a Nintendo gaming system. I was on cloud nine, I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to have a Nintendo. Today I mostly game on a PC (PC master race) but I also own both consoles (XBOX & PS4).
Every year I make an annual migration to Anaheim, CA for Blizzcon which I call my happy place. It’s the one weekend I am surrounded by people I know I won’t have any awkward conversations about my weekend with. 🙂
Thanks, everyone for letting me share my icebreaker, I look forward to hearing about how you enjoy spending your time.
