Sometimes I find myself wondering what my life would be like if I'd made different choices. I don't think it's just me, I think that a lot of people do this from time to time. Most people though don't have someone in their life that is so much like them, yet so different. I on the other hand have a twin sister, and she is, in many ways my reflection.
It is an interesting experience to grow up with someone the same age as you, who was born with the same blood in their veins, and raised by the same parents. You could easily argue that this is true of all siblings, but I think it is even more true for twins, even fraternal ones. Growing up we were referred to as "the twins" and rarely was one of us mentioned, and not the other. Even being opposite genders, we were treated more or less the same.
As much as we were treated alike we were (and still are) very different people. I was always the "quiet one" while she was much more outgoing. Growing up I was the one sitting along in my room, reading a book or playing a game. She was the one on the phone for hours or off at a friends house (this phenomenon however, is standard for teenage girls). She was always the one who was much more socially active. I had only a few friends when I was young though that changed considerably by the time I hit high school.
It was in the 7th grade that I was first exposed to role-playing games. A friend discovered his older brothers stash of Dungeons and Dragons rule books, and we thought we'd try them out. After a bit of trial and error we got the hang of it and were soon running our own adventures for each other. Initially we'd play at the town library (even got out picture in the local newspaper) and then shifted to playing at our homes on weekends. We had a lot of fun and some of my fondest childhood memories still are playing D&D in a tent in my mom's backyard.
High school is when everything began to change. Some changes for good, others..not so much. Between the changes of high school and much of my first gaming group moving away, out games ground to a halt. Luckily a good friend had introduced me to a group of people a grade above me. They played D&D (among other things) and would become my new gaming circle. We would have a lot of great adventures and it was with them that I would get my first exposure to LARPing in the form of NERO.
Meanwhile my sister was falling into the wrong crowd, smoking, and began to experiment with drugs. At one point she was even caught smoking marijuana inside of the school. She would eventually leave our school, and go to live with our older sister, although her life didn't improve with the change in scenery.
You're probably starting to wonder how I could consider my sister's life to be reflective of my own. Well in the years before I started gaming my circle of friends was much different. The people I hung out with got into fights, lied, cheated, and even stole things. They were probably not the people my mom would have liked me to be spending my free time with. By the time we hit high school one of these early friends would show up to the bus stop stoned, or even worse get stoned at the bus stop.
If I hadn't discovered role-playing games I probably would've kept my original circle of friends and gotten myself into activities that were not nearly as wholesome as gutting orcs with longswords. Perhaps I spend too much time pondering things like this, but I can't help but want to thank D&D for keeping me out of trouble, and introducing me to a hobby that has positively impacted for almost 20 years.
So here's to another 20 years! My life will keep on moving forward, and I'll keep on rolling dice and imagining things.
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