My Loser Phase: Reflections on Video Game Retail from 1992-1997

August 1996: Back to School



If I was going to stop being a loser the first thing I had to do was go back to college. Not junior college but real college. It was a tad tricky. During the admission process I didn't mention going to junior college since my grades were awful. Instead I gave a story about working for a few years after high school to save money (even though I was close to penniless). My old ACT score was good enough to sneak into an average college. At 21, I was easily the oldest freshman on campus but it didn't matter to me one bit. I knew that I had to finally take things seriously and keep moving in a positive direction.

It goes without saying that I quit Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware. I didn't blame them for the situation I was in, I made all my own decisions. To move on in life I had to start fresh, symbolically at least. I still worked a crappy retail job (night manager at a crappy bookstore) to get by. It was one of these places that was open until 10:00 PM so I could balance it with class time easily.

Once I started college full-time I stopped following the game industry almost entirely. Even now I'm not keeping pace with new systems. I have a Gamecube but bought that to play Zelda and collections of old games. I try to follow gaming news but most current-gen games just aren't for me.

With the aid of summer school I graduated in 3.5 years. I later went to graduate school in the evenings which took another 3 years to wrap-up. [High horse warning] The moral of this whole story is that if you're in a dead-end job, retail or otherwise, you can turn things around. You must be willing to put in 80-hour weeks between school and work while living on peanuts for 3-4 years. Paint two pictures in your mind, the first of where you'll be in 5 years if you change nothing, the other of where you'll be after finishing college (or a similar objective). A short period of hard work makes a substantial difference in where your life leads.