8 Minute Memoir, Day 6: Games

My siblings and I had a childhood full of board games (and, let's be real, video games, too).  Frankly, I still love playing board games, and the reason I don't currently have any in my possession is that I just simply don't have the room for them!  Probably my favorite board game when I was a kid--and now, really--is The Game of Life.

This game, I just love it!  I mean, it plays into all of my creative tendencies, my propensity for dreaming, and still has that competitive edge to it.  After all, wasn't the whole point of Life to become the most successful in the end?  Of course.  I always loved the journey to get to that goal, though.

The spinner on our Life game board only worked properly about a quarter of the time... we were constantly having to reset it (was this a problem with all of them?)  Nevertheless we kept the game moving, either going right to work, or going to college... finding a job... eventually getting married and buying a house (always the Tudor)... if you were lucky, having a kid or two.  And so our plastic cars, filled with tiny (literally, they often got lost, disappearing into the carpet) pink and blue people, made their way across the colorful board, wandering down the road of Life, celebrating triumphs and failures.  Would we end up at Countryside Acres, or Millionaire Estates?  Only time would tell.

Only time will tell.  When I played this game as a kid, I wondered how close real adulthood would be to the game.  Because, well, of course I did; I hoped it would be something accurate to go off of, playing pretend with my friends and imagining that I was a grown up.  Now that I am a grown up--or so they tell me--I can confidently say that really, Milton Bradley pretty much got it right.  Except this is the real deal, and that makes it even more exciting.  Graduating from college... getting the job that would change my life... marrying my best friend... it's all happening, in real time, and it couldn't be any sweeter.

All that being said, I'm always down for The Game of Life.  I'll pick the blue car, please!