Falling Out Of Love(But Still Friends)

Some things in life you think will never leave you.There are interests/hobbies that I have now that I have maintained since before I hit puberty.I'm talking about video games and pro wrestling.They've always been there and they've always just fit right.However, in the past year or so,I've seen my interest in both of those things dwindle to nearly nothing.I never really expected that to happen.

Now, I'm not talking about fads or passing fancies.I tend to get interested in a lot of things,but only for a little while.It's sort of turned me into the "jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none" type of person,which I am OK with.It comes in handy as I'm rarely lost in any task.Video games and wrestling though were always both a given.I'm not sure where they lost me.

I think getting involved in pro wrestling may have killed that for me.The first thing that happened was that I lost interest in watching it on TV.I haven't watched wrestling on TV in about 2 years.It seems silly to watch when I can just do it on my own.I can't even sit through older matches,which I would assume would scratch some sort of nostaglic itch.I guess I assumed wrong.

Even participating has been something of a downer recently.When I signed up, I signed up as a manager.I weigh 160 lbs on a heavy day,so I felt that I would be too small to wrestle and that managing would allow me to be involved as a personality without looking too out-of-place.But as the years have gone on,I've realized that I am happiest when I'm getting tossed around and hit.It's invigorating.I could do it every day.

But I'm a manager, a "cowardly heel"type.I can do all the moves...very well.I can even put together a halfway decent match.Given experience I could do a whole lot better.In my position though, that doesn't happen very much.I'm there for "flavor."I'm there to work the crowd and get them into the match.And I'm getting tired of it.There are guys who wrestle who are my size and even smaller.So why don't I wrestle?Because I'd look ridiculous.Wrestlers should be big.They should look like they could kick the ass of nearly anyone in the audience.I do not look like that,not even a little bit.So now when I go to a show I just want to get hit.I want to do something that will end up with me on my back.I'm not afraid of getting hurt at all.Those opportunities don't come too often though.I'm usually left disappointed.I rarely go to practice anymore because I never get to use what I learn.

It's frustrating and I'm ready to quit.I never saw that coming.Here I am, doing something I have dreamed of since I was little and I'm about to voluntarily walk away.I know I'm a little frustrated at being too small to take the role I'd really like to take, but quitting?I don't know how it came to that.I should be glad just to be there,but it just hasn't been enough.I never saw this coming.

As far as the video games go, my thought is that maybe I'm just finally moving past them.I still play.I love my Nintendo DS.I'm currently playing the shit out of Guitar Hero.But I don't feel any need to move past that.The new systems do absolutely nothing for me.I put my money down for an Xbox360 when they were being released,but had to take the preorder back because it left me short on Xmas present money.(I don't really celebrate Xmas.My buying presents is more out of consideration for the people I know who do.)That was my last itch for any sort of video game.

I still follow what's being released, just so I'm not totally out of touch.And from what I see, the industry is focusing less on making new and exciting products and more on becoming a sequel factory for the few proven sellers.Come up with a great,original idea....then pump out 8 sequels to compete with the copycat games.I'm tired of racing games.I'm tired of first-person shooters and any game featuring the military.I'm even tired of RPGs.Shit's all the same now.

Also, the attitude around games has changed as they've become less of a geeky guilty pleasure and more of a mainstream pasttime.Companies no longer seem to be trying to outdo each other on games, but instead have turned things into some technological arms race.What good are all of those pretty graphics if the game underneath them is five years old?Better physics and more characters onscreen does not equal a new gameplay experience.And I've never been a tech-junky.I think a lot of the techy stuff is neat, but wholy unnecessary.

Gamers have gotten swept up in the madness too.It used to be that if someone you knew had a different system than you had, it was cool because you got to try some games you probably did not have the opportunity to play at your house.Everyone is taking sides now.People pick a console and stand by it like they're getting a royalty check.

Now there's a rift between "casual" gamers and "hardcore" gamers.Both are terms created in the media.Neither term existed even a few years ago.Everyone used to be just a gamer.Now if you like puzzle games, suddenly you're not playing "real" games.The game industry is now finally opening itself up and making this once almost shameful hobby acceptable and gaming nerds are doing all they can to keep the newcomers out.They're worried that their games are going to suffer in quality in order to be accessible to some fictional 50 year old woman just picking up a controller for the first time.It's stupid and makes me angry.I'm embarrassed to be even marginally associated with these people.They're getting a negative sterotype and I have to say that it is well deserved.

I am so grateful that comics have come back into my life to fill any potential void left by games and wrestling going bye-bye.Sure, the fans are harsh in comics too.But once you can accept that quality in comics is subjective and that only you can determine what you like, it becomes more bearable and even entertaining.There's an endless amount of material out there.As long as I like reading, I'll like comics.I'm also not the type to take the stories and characters personally, which helps since sometimes jarring changes are the norm.I hope I don't become one of those jaded, bitter, "I'm dropping Amazing Spider-Man from my pull list which now only has 2 comics on it because everything sucks so much." kind of people.I'm running out of places to get my geek on.