Dear Max & Dave,
I remember one year,
coming home from the holidays.
It was bitter cold,
the days were dark,
my folks picked me up at the airport.
I had almost everything I owned
in a bag on my back.
It had been a rough year.
an impossible year.
There wasn't a lot of fight left in me.
We drove back to the house where I was raised
and on the way we stopped for a warm meal
at a cheap Mexican place that I used to love as a kid.
As we walked out across the lot,
there was a GameStop.
I wasn't feeling much like games,
I wasn't feeling much like anything,
but my mom told me to go in.
She could see that I was down
and she knew just how much that I used to like
just looking at all the boxes in the game stores.
So I went in,
figuring that I would look around for a minute and then go.
Heck, it was better than nothing, right?
But as I walked in,
I saw an employee putting the last boxes up
in a giant display.
It was for Final Fantasy X.
I had sort of lost track of the series after VIII, but...
I remembered how much I loved the "Final Fantasy"'s of my youth
I, IV, VI
Even the Final Fantasy Legends, which...
I still thought were "Final Fantasy"'s at the time.
It was launch day for Final Fantasy X.
They had exactly two copies left.
So, I figured...
Urgh, why not?
My PS2 was in my bag.
It might be nice to have something to play
to get through the holidays.
I put the few dollars I had from my nothing job on the counter,
and walked out with the game that I really knew nothing about except for the title.
We went home.
I got settled in to my old room.
I stayed up late talking with the family.
Then, when the house was dark,
and everyone had gone to bed,
I found I couldn't sleep.
So, I wrapped a blanket around me,
tore the cellophane off of this game that I bought,
and figured I go ahead and fire it up
on the tiny TV in my room.
About twenty minutes into the game,
one of the characters says to another:
Before sending him on this terrifying magnificent adventure that was his life.
And that phrase just kept rattling through my head.
because it was true.
"This was my story."
I felt useless and powerless and beaten down
but "This was my story."
The world was too heavy,
and I felt too small, but
"This was my story."
Things were outside of my control
that I felt like there was nothing I could do
but this was my story,
and I was gonna write it my way.
This was the lesson games taught me.
I had been the protagonist in so many journies
I've been the hero on so many adventures
and done so many mighty deeds.
Why not in my own life?
I was going to write my story.
No matter what came at me,
no matter how difficult it felt,
or what obstacles were laid in my path.
These were just challenges to be overcome.
Because every hero faces challenges.
Every protagonist has struggles
It's never easy for the heroes in these stories,
but they always look for an answer.
They always find the way.
They always get back up and dust themselves off.
They don't let someone else write the story for them.
When I first declared that I was gonna work designing games for a living,
many of the people that I knew told me that I was crazy
that people didn't just get jobs doing stuff like that.
But, "This was my story"
and I wasn't going to accept that.
And as they went out to find safe jobs,
I went through my twisty path, that
eventually led me here.
I was poor and broke
while they were bringing in their first good paychecks.
While they were buying their first cars,
I was working catering.
Many of them were very kind and
offered to get me some starting position where they worked.
But, "this was my story."
And I knew that wasn't how it was supposed to go.
When I first seriously applied to be a game designer,
everybody told me that job didn't exist as an entry-level position.
And at the time, it didn't.
They all told me that I had to start in QA.
but I knew that THAT wasn't my story.
So, I sent out 120 resumes
and, I got twelve "yes"es.
Of those, the one I really desired wanted me to start right away.
I had enough money for a one-way ticket
or enough money to make rent that month.
I bought the ticket.
The office had a shower,
all my worldly possessions fit in two suitcases under my desk.
From my first two weeks on the job,
I was the first one to work in the morning,
and the last one out of the office
because I was sleeping on the beach.
That was my story.
Max, Dave, we weren't born rich
we weren't born with a golden ticket.
People are gonna break your heart,
people are gonna disappoint you,
sometimes it's gonna seem like it's
just easier for everybody else than it is for you.
But this is your story.
It can be anything you want it to be.