Imaginary Worlds
As kids, my brother and I created countless imaginary leagues, competitions, and games to keep ourselves entertained - Pokemon tournaments with our collection of 200+ figurines, stuffed animal basketball leagues, spreadsheets to track who was better at Mario Super Sluggers, and many others.
With our collection of 100+ stuffed animals, we drafted them into custom teams and played out the matches against each other on our miniature indoor basketball hoops; we created elaborate Excel spreadsheets to track the rosters, schedules, and stats (team and individual); we created PowerPoint presentations with news headlines of results and brackets; and we even drew up playbooks with made-up plays like "Green", "Sardine", "Squatch", and "Charmin".
I recently recovered many of these files from my original email account (which I named "junkstuff2011..."), and I've included loads of screenshots at the bottom of this post since they are truly too precious NOT to share.
These kinds of imaginary worlds continued to be part of my life throughout middle school, where I invented new ways to play Heroscape and designed new Smash Bros characters, and high school, where I created basketball leagues using names of the people I saw everyday, as well as competed with my brother on actual challenges like how many layups, free throws, and 3-pointers we could make in a row.
When I graduated from high school, I left this part of me behind. It was time to get serious after all - I needed to get a degree, learn how to take care of myself, and boost my resume for the "real world". There was no time for silly leagues or spreadsheets.
But in many ways, I was wrong to do that. I was wrong to leave behind my inner child, that part of me - of everyone, probably - that is fascinated with the world around me, blissfully unburdened by issues I gradually became more and more conscious of as I aged, and endlessly curious and eager to learn and explore my environment.
I've felt most fulfilled, most confident, most valuable, most excited when the work I'm doing feels like play. That's not to say that all work can or even should feel like play, but I do believe that finding your "calling" becomes a lot easier when you embrace your inner child and pursue work that feels like play at its best and is tolerable at its worst.
I regained a bit of this inner child during my junior year, when I joined the university's Smash Bros Club and started becoming genuinely interested in competing in tournaments. I met some fun people, burnt the midnight oil many times, and of course, made lots of spreadsheets.
I competed in a few tournaments (with underwhelming results) and decided that the community ultimately wasn't for me, although I continued to play with friends and family (anyone close to me will be familiar with the infamous "best of 7 best of 7 best of 7", which had a tendency to consume entire northern Michigan trips).
A few months before graduation, COVID prompted a shutdown of our in-person classes and events - including fraternity formals, graduation, and nightlife. Fortunately, the annual Ski Club trip was NOT cancelled - which I am immensely grateful for, as this trip would lead to my greatest sense of belonging throughout my college years.
Our Ski Club made the local newspaper in Aspen, Colorado
Once the shutdown reached professional sports, I remember seeing an episode of LastWeekTonight that featured a YouTube channel called Jelle's Marble Runs, which hosts an annual Olympics-style competition - for marbles! Fascinated, inspired, obsessed, I began religiously followly the MarbleLympics.
The joy of building imaginary worlds came surging back, and I began to dream of building something like Jelle's Marble Runs - a project that could offer endless creative freedom, enable others to feel that same joy of world-building, and even provide a living for myself, if I was lucky.
This would spark the next phase of my "imaginary worlds", which included a YouTube channel. It would also eventually lead to my passion for coding and game development and many other projects. I'm editing these stories and will post them when I can find time - for now, please enjoy the plethora of screenshots from the imaginary worlds of my childhood.
Screenshots (circa 2009-2014)
Stuffed Animal Basketball Leagues
Other Basketball Leagues
Pokemon Species Hunt
Mario Super Sluggers Leagues
Heroscape
Mini Ninjas
Super Smash Bros
To Be Continued...