Moment & Writing

“Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).”

Today was THE moment of the year. I played Lazer Tag with my students. And in that moment, I transformed. I went from Aaron the guy to Aaron the assassin. I separated from my team mates and I hunted the students. I got better each round. I was on the top of the leaderboard for my team at the last round.

Round one, I was learning the layout. I was looking for my team mates. I was just having fun. But I never took corners as a joke. I checked most of them. There were a lot of moments when I shot my partners by accident. And they shot me. I didn’t mind. Accidents. Learned a lot about the board.

Round two, strategy. We tried the strategy of looking for each opponents base and taking them out. It worked to a point. But to no avail. We only won by 100.

Round three. I was alone. I hunted the children. I said nothing. I breathed through my nostrils. I looked out for blue or yellow lights. Signs that they were near my position. Depending on the brightness, I was in the clear for an attack. Bright, meant there were three or more. I judged each group cautiously. I never went after more than three.

I remember seeing them come up stairs. They came single file. It was almost too easy to pick them off one by one. They stood still. And before I knew it, they waited for their guns to turn back on to shoot me back. So I instantly learned, not to stay in one position for very long. Get your shot in and leave.

The dead zone, the center of the field, was almost infested with activity. I looked, nothing but fat kids. I took the two kids out and before I could make my escape diagonally, I saw the kids coming from that direction. So I ran to my right. looking out for cover, or another pathway. Nothing but dead ends. I was tired of a 2:1 kill death ratio. I got to my last dead end, turned around and shot both kids that were after me.

I felt like a super soldier. I felt the way video games are supposed to make you feel.

 

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“Prompt: Writing. What do you do each day that doesn't contribute to your writing -- and can you eliminate it?”

 

I think, the biggest thing that does get in the way of writing is generally, like, life. There’s this feeling like, you have so much time in a day. Until you’re tired and you realize that you only have 24 hours to really make a difference in and throughout a lot of that time you are sleeping or in the middle of something just as important.

I don’t know, maybe its also because I’m a procrastinator. And Its what I do.