It was a warm but not so cold Christmas morning of 2008 and the smell of pine filled the house waking up that morning to run down the stairs to see the tree filled with different colored wrapped gifts. Saying good morning to my parents that woke up before me “merry christmas” so one by one unwrapping the gifts from smallest to biggest. From clothes to lego sets I see one box as red as the paper that surrounded the box the height like a small truck was in it. Slowly listening to the rose red paper rip off of the box. Seeing hints of green and white then I saw it, “360” I whispered to myself, quickly unwrapping the whole box. There it was the Xbox 360, red paper still hanging off of it but I’m too focused and excited that I got my very first console. As red shiny paper flutters in the wind as I run to hug my parents to thank them for the thing that will change my life.

Being too ecstatic I told my dad if he can help me set up the Xbox and when all was set up I went to press that silver circle and there that sound was, the sound of my gaming life. Then with a subtle but bright green the silver circle turned on with a green light in the middle. The TV screen lights up with a white screen then rows of different shades of greens come flying in like the wind and creating the Xbox logo at the end. My smile is so big and bright while holding the controller in my hand ready to start playing the thing that would give me joy for the rest of my life. To online friends that would last a lifetime to playing with friends that I see every day, joy and rage in games that would create memories that would last forever.

We started playing, and the first round we just hid behind one box the whole time. We ended up getting surrounded and we just surrendered because we were scared. The next round was terrible though. All the badass players were on the other side so we got tore up. I got it easy by getting one in the face over some sand bags, but my other 2 friends came back to the sideline drenched in paint. I didn’t really want to stay any longer, but they convinced me to stay one more. I’m glad I did because my freshman year ELA teacher showed up and started carrying us.

Right when he got into the game he was shooting people out left and right. I was really impressed because the guy already plays guitar, makes boots, plays disc golf, and all this other exotic stuff. It was funny though because I didn’t expect him to be the type to play, and he came out guns blazing. After a while we got a little ballsy and started to run around a lot more. We started to survive a lot more fights, because we started to stay in a group. It was really fun shooting up close but our excitement didn’t last much longer. My friend got shot in the neck and I had a close call with my wobbly bits, so we decided to call it a day. We ended the day with some solid wins after losing 3 straight rounds, and I have to say after that day paintball has become super addicting for me. 

I’m glad I was able to find something to do during the pandemic and get out of the house. I met lots of new people from playing that I still talk to pretty regularly. I probably would’ve had a very boring 2020 if I pussed out and didn’t go. 

When we arrived at the place the tour guides talked about a lot of bird species being in the area, when we were on a boat tour we saw a croc and I was curious if there were crocodiles nearby the swamp we were staying at, they didn’t respond to my question and they left. My family decided to take a dip and swim for a bit. After swimming they went and got their stuff prepared to leave. I told them I was going to take a quick dip and come back. I decided to take a dip a little close to the area we were in. I jumped water splashing everywhere with excitement, i looked at the birds and the beautiful trees surrounding me,  but for some reason the atmosphere seemed rather off. I saw something underneath a big tree under the water. And there it was a crocodile. It kept moving its head sideways,I was frozen and scared but I decided that’s not how I want to die. After being frozen for about 5 seconds I realized that the croc hadn’t noticed me yet so i swimmed slowly to prevent making water splashes because they love that noise and would do anything to chase it. I was tempted to look back but I kept swimming forward, luckily a big branch was sticking out, I put my hands around the branch and moved forward so then I wouldn’t slip and fall to the jaws of the croc. That’s the end of my story thanks for reading my weird writing.