Jump Up!

The Tale of the JumpUpBlogger

I have not blogged since my very first blog post some fourteen months ago. To be honest, I started blogging to maybe somehow turn it into a profit. But, my perspective has changed. I’m a writer at heart, and I want my posts to mean something much more than just money. I want to inspire gamers around the world to do what they do best: gaming! Gaming is a passion for many people. Games strengthen our minds. Gamers gravitate toward games because they are fun and uplifting in a world that has become increasingly chaotic and unstable.

I went to a college in Pennsylvania. I earned my bachelor’s degree in history. Learning history is not just about memorizing dates and facts. That is far from it. Learning history is about developing arguments and backing them up with evidence. I became an efficient reader and writer through studying history. I believe that.

I also believe that everything happens for a reason. While I was in school, I picked an early Western Civilization course with a particular professor. Let’s call him, “Mike.” Professor Mike was a peculiar man. He was a talented musician and was quite sophisticated. He never drank alcohol, and he had a wealth of knowledge in world history. 

In the very beginning of Professor Mike’s Western Civilization course, he gave us a quiz. I studied my ass off and was ready for this quiz. Alas, he failed me! So, I went to his office hours to ask him why he would fail me even though I studied my hide off for this quiz. He explained the way I answered his questions was incorrect and showed me the right way to do it. So, I kept going to his office hours and he kept helping me answer his questions properly.

I decided to take another course with Professor Mike my junior year. This time the course was historiography. Historiography is the history of studying history (that makes my brain hurt just typing it).  Professor Mike decided to give us a pop quiz this time! I was prepared for it and wrote down the answer to his question. He failed me once more. This time he claimed that I BS’d the entire quiz and even semi-plagiarized my answer! So, I went into his office and demanded a further explanation!

This visit to professor Mike’s office changed my life as a writer forever. Indeed, I didn’t answer his question one bit. I BS’d the entire answer and paraphrased a passage from the book without citing it! From that day forward, I went into every single one of Professor Mike’s office hours for whatever course I was taking and learned how to write efficiently. 

It all started in the first house that I lived in with my family. I was three years old. It is hard to remember the story, so I often consult my father as to what happened that night. My family got a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) for Christmas in 1991. My brother and father loved playing it. I was a timid child. I would just sit there and watch them play.

According to my father, I was scared to play the game. The game in question was Super Mario World. Nevertheless, my father put the controller in my hands and taught me how to play. It was really simple. You used the B button to jump and the Y button to run. Also, you used the control pad to move Mario up, down, left, and right. There were other controls I could’ve used, like the A button to spin jump. But he wanted to keep it simple for a three year old.

I was resistant at first. I didn’t even know his ABC’s yet! But, I held onto the controller and kept playing. Then, I played some more. And more. Suddenly, I was in love with what was on my television. Bedtime came around, and my parents put my brother and me to sleep.

My father stayed up. He got all the way to the third castle, which was guarded by the infamous Lemmy Koopa. You see, Bowser was the final boss in Super Mario World. He had seven of his Kooplings guarding each of the seven main castles. My father was unable to beat Lemmy’s Castle. It was a challenge for him. Back then, gaming wasn’t exactly the booming industry that it is today. In 1991, the times were different. I mean, it was only nineteen years after the initial release of Pong! The word gamer hardly existed.

So my father struggled to get past that third castle. He stayed up until four in the morning trying to beat Lemmy’s Castle. Finally, he beat it! He was victorious and retired to bed. The next morning, he woke up and traveled downstairs to the living room. He found me in front of the SNES playing Super Mario World. What happened next either surprised him, or pissed him off. I had beaten Lemmy’s Castle in no less than three tries. He was dumbfounded.

According to my father, the reason I beat Lemmy’s Castle before he did was because of my patience. I didn’t try to rush through the level. Sure, there was a time limit of roughly four hundred seconds. But, I took that into account and took my time. For example, I waited for a Thwomp to pounce. On his way back up, I would run past him. That was the type of gamer I was. Slow and steady.