Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be some piece explaining why I think we live in a simulation (although, I do think that). This is more so going to be me talking about how I think we should go about our lives.

Back when I was in high school, I was a bit of a gamer. I was invested in games like Fallout, GTA, and Skyrim. Each of these titles has one thing in common — they’re all role-playing games (RPG). I was drawn to these games because of their inherent character building; I had the freedom to do whatever, customize my character in any way, and track my progress, easily, through in-game accolades. The last video game I played religiously was Fallout 4 — it’s my gold standard for video games. I can recall, in my sophomore year of high school, I would come home and devote countless hours to this game. When I wasn’t playing I was either thinking about the next chance I got to play it, my character's future game plan, or reliving my character's past experiences. There’s no doubt I was textbook addicted.

After countless days spent playing Fallout 4, I finally beat the game. I was so relieved, it was like a weight was lifted on my shoulders and I could finally move my sights onto a new game. But, then I began to reflect on the experience. I reflected on the past couple of months of playing and my in-game accomplishments. I thought about how these achievements were now useless and meant nothing. I thought about how the skills I picked up could not be transferred or translated to any other domain. None of the stuff I earned or spent hours working towards in the game meant anything now; it was during this post-game clarity that I decided I would move away from video games.

Since then, I sold my PS4 and I haven’t looked back. I shifted my focus away from games like Fallout and more towards the game of life. As a result of this shift, I began viewing life as a video game and what I mean by that is everything I had wanted in a video game is evidently ingrained in real life. Choosing my adventure, customizing myself, and tracking my progress. These are all characteristics of life. The turnaround time may be longer but the results are tangible thus making it more rewarding.

By viewing life as a video game, it opens you up to a world of new possibilities. If you think you would enjoy being a musician but have never played an instrument, well then level up your music abilities and rise through the leader boards. If you think you’d want to be a UFC fighter, well then level up your fighting skills and compete for the crown. If you think it would be cool to run a marathon… I’m sure you get the idea by now.

Here are the three main points I’m trying to hammer home from this. First, the only person that’s stopping you from evolving yourself is you, life is a choose your own adventure. It may not seem like that when you’re so dialed in and focused on the task at hand — but if you take a step back, then you’ll realize the world is your oyster. Second, be as eclectic as you want. Your labels should not define you; in fact, you shouldn’t even adopt any labels, to begin with, because then you’ll be constrained to that label. For instance, if I were to label myself as a computer scientist (this is what I’m going to school for), then it would be uncharacteristic of me to write non-technically. I would be deviating from my expected path as that is not something you would expect from your average computer scientist. Therefore, I would not do it since I want to keep my identity; but, because I am not defined by the fact that I go to school for computer science this allows me to be as fluid as I want. Third, gamify your life to make it more engaging and fun. Think of your life in levels — for me, I’m still in school and I will most likely be for the next 5+ years. The way I keep myself engaged is by thinking about it like I’m still in the tutorial stage. I need to acquire the necessary tools, information, and skills before I can go out on my own adventure to slay the metaphorical dragon.