Back To School? I Thought I Was Done

Yesterday was our first day at the Austin GDC. Brad and I attended a few lectures throughout the day. Although much of the information was aimed towards developers and people making games, a lot of the information made sense and we enjoyed ourselves.

Today, I'm sitting down waiting for the "Why Game Composers MUST Become 21st Century Artist or Face Extinction" and I am reminded of being back in school. I walked in with my backpack on. The groups were already settled. The people who knew each other had sat together. There was that slight awkwardness when I slowly found my isolated seat in the corner. Some people look to see if you're someone they recognize. Others keep to themselves working on their laptops or chatting away with colleagues.

I'm reminded of a talk I had with my Dad when I was growing up and playing tennis. I'm a little fish thrown into a big pond with lots of other fish. It's much larger than I've ever experienced and I'm surrounded by bigger fish who have been around a while. I'm just barely able to find my own piece of the pond, let alone avoid being swallowed by something much larger than I.

I thought I'd left this all behind back in high school and then later in college. But I'm reminded and learning that it's a constant process that I and We will always be dealing with. We'll always just be trying to find our place and struggle to find what we want. It's not going to change, all we can change is how meet this process, either by dipping one toe in and slowly submerging ourselves or by jumping into the freezing water-buck naked with no regrets. Neither one is necessarily wrong. But it is a choice you make that will affect your life.


Thanks for listening,
David