Andy’s Article: When the Video Game Dream Awakes

Article #7 in the ESL Student Life Story Project, by Andy from China, age 20.

The light passed through the window near my bed and fell on my face. The weakness of the sun woke me, and I opened my eyes. My view through the window saw a dim scene, and I suddenly realized something was wrong.

Before going to sleep, I had been playing an online game called World of Warcraft for an extremely long time. How long was I playing? For TWENTY straight hours. From noon until ten am the next day, I was on the computer, killing monsters.

So when I woke up the next day, my brain felt very bad. I can’t describe this feeling, but you might visualize how it would be to work twenty-four hours, then only sleep two hours… then wake up to see the sun strangely low in the sky.

Maybe I slept too little time or maybe I slept too much. Was it dawn or was it dusk? I was too confused. However, I did know that I was VERY tired, and that my vision was blurred.

Through the window I saw a gloomy sky. A few stars were hanging high above in the gray, and some sun glow remained, through which colored clouds were drifting. In that moment, I thought it might be dawn.

I slowly got up, and opened the window because I wanted my brain sober. I wanted to be purified from the video game haze. Wind passed through the window and blew over my face. I stood and watched the sky for few minutes.

Suddenly, I heard a bird’s “Caw!” sound, then the distance became filled with rising white smoke, and the trees’ colors turned to gold. After that, many twilight crows flew in front of me.

The sky’s color changed to a silver gray that looked like a dream’s color, and the atmosphere became like milk. My home in Taishaan, China, is near the sea, and the water from the ocean was filling the air in a gray screen. Trees, houses, smoke, and clouds made silhouettes, posing on that gray sky screen.

In this moment I knew it was not dawn. It was dusk. It was a beautiful, brief, and mysterious dusk. Then, when I wanted to appreciate it, it disappeared.

At that moment, I knew I needed to leave my virtual world and embrace reality.

Lillie’s Note: I think this article is downright poetry. Who knew that twenty hours of video games could produce such a revelation? Please leave Andy a comment, stating your geographical location.