#21 – Learn how to play a video game.

My sister, Amy, uses Twitter to share moments of her life with the world.  Last night, after a very casual and exceptionally friendly game of Mario Kart Wii with a good group of friends online that included Amy and her husband, this is the “tweet” that I found…

“I don’t know how my sister Katie got so good at Mario Kart so quickly, but I don’t like it one bit!”

I think this comment marks the point at which I reached my goal of learning how to play a video game.  There are still levels for me to master in Mario Kart and things to unlock, but my goal was not to completely win a game, it was just to learn how to play.

You may ask, “Why, Katie, are your goals in life so high?”

The reason that I originally put this goal on my 101 in 1001 list was, believe it or not, not to frustrate my sister, but to share a hobby with Dave.

The few times that I played video games as a kid all resulted in crushing humiliation at friends’ houses because I could never ever get poor little Mario past the very first level of that stupid original Super Mario Brothers game.  Shameful.  Anyhow, as an adult, I simply never had an interest in playing.  My husband, however, finds video games to be a great source of “entertainment and stress relief”.  His “preferred method of both” he would tell you.  I was willing to give it a shot.

Mario Kart Wii was a fairly easy game to get involved in.  You turn a steering wheel the same way you do in real life, pushing a few buttons for gas and brakes.  You race against cartoon characters.  And slap-stick merciless brutality with cartoon weapons is the only true way to victory.   It turns out that it is a lot of fun to play.

While I will not be winning video game championships anytime soon, Dave and I can now share time playing Mario Kart together.  Being able to beat my family online is just an added benefit.

Rematch Amy?