Monday, November 19, 2012

Grand Theft Auto Lessons for Life by Conner Q


Conner Quigley                                                                                                                                  
Grand Theft Auto Lessons for life
            Every road has some carnage, every character has a story behind them, and you are stuck deciding what path you want to take. If any toy has taught me valuable life lessons it is the computer. More specifically a game called grand theft auto 3 on that computer did all the teaching. Kids grow up loving a favorite toy and cherishing it for the rest of their lives like for example a little toy car. Although for me, a long day on the computer, after school, kept me cherishing. Without Grand Theft Auto 3 I would have never learned some important life lessons. My whole life was changed because of this game. I developed critical life lessons like street Intelligence, life Skills, individual passions, and ideas as a result.
            I look back at my young age and question why my parents ever even showed me Grand Theft Auto. It is rather enraging to think they ended up banning me from playing it shortly after. It’s common for kids to relate to when dad or mom took their favorite toy away because they were being naughty. In this generation it’s becoming more and more common for the parents to take away games, cars, or Barbie Dolls because of something they did not like about the toy. Once I got hooked on GTA I had no chance turning back even when my parents took it away. I look back and can blame a majority of my computer knowledge to GTA because of all the temptations. GTA was what many would call a cheaters game. To really fall in love with the game you had to cheat. This is where my intelligence grew. In GTA you can hack the cars to go light speed, give guns unlimited ammo, and make tanks shoot missiles that knock it back a couple thousand feet. In life you always want to find something your good at and master that better than anyone else. Hacking is no easy task and learning how to do that when I was in elementary school was amazing.  The computer is most definitely what I have been born to do and it was an important life lesson to learn young because it dominates our society so much today. The computer is a dangerous toy and life almost seems unimaginable without it.
            Life Lessons emerge in many forms, one important life lesson everyone should learn  is that in life you need money making skills. Money drives everything in this country. If a toy can teach that to a kid when they are young then everyone parent should be buying that toy. In GTA you learn budgeting, business etiquette, how to set goals, and what not to do in the real world through various missions. Like goal setting for example, we all learn at a young age how to go for something you want. In GTA if you wanted a certain car, you had to save up for it from working hard missions. You then take that saved money, search for the car, and drive it home from the dealership. Time demanding but almost all real goals seem to follow the same suit. Another important life lesson to learn young is how to stay away from trouble in the real world. In GTA you can go out stealing any vehicle you see and killing anyone you want with a great chance of getting away from the cops. When you are young you learn very quickly that just jumping in someones car and trying to steal it is impossible. Cars don’t start themselves, cars can’t be driven with 4 different keyboard strokes, People can’t be thrown out of a car, and cops are more efficient in real life than in a computer game.
            It’s important to develop skills young and it’s also important to use the skills towards passions you love. If any life lesson every young kid should learn, it’s to find something that will always make you happy. Luckily I found a toy that gets re-developed every year, and due to the nature of that toy I will always get to enjoy it. My passion is gaming, not very many toys can be played with and lead to a passion. The computer is no normal toy though, its special, it is always evolving, and adapting each year. Like any gamer you develop a connection to the game you play the most and it consumes your entire day sometimes.
            Addiction comes in mysterious ways and frequently you become addicted to your favorite toy for at least a little while. Getting over bad addictions is an important skill to learn for the rest of your life. What keeps a kid so addicted to a toy at such a young age is usually his brain racing with ideas. Ideas are like diseases, one is created, developed, and then living off a host until it is destroyed. For many young boys, they get caught always wanting to destroy things, causing mayhem to simply put it. Luckily for the world this is grown out of quickly, a simple addiction quickly overcome. If it were not overcome, we might have adults playing target practice against random bystanders and animals. This is a result of when a kid is playing with a G.I. Joe and he is going around shooting every commando in his path, destroying every blockade that tries to stop him. For me my important life lesson idea was to be respectful to others at all times. Respect holds a certain bar of understanding, in GTA the whole game is about earning respect of all the mobsters to get any farther in the ranks of life. This holds true for real life and is a lesson to be learned by all. Growing up you earn the respect of teachers, friends, and hopefully even your managers. If someone respects you they are more likely to do something for you.
            In every toy there is a life lesson to be learned. Sometimes it takes years down to road to completely understand the lesson was. Childhood toys hold a lot of value in regards to what can be learned from each. Intelligence, skills, passions, and ideas are important to making it anywhere in this world. Like the computer, some toys are very complicated, they never get old. Then in comparison Barbie dolls die off with age of the person. It’s crazy how toys can define us like how grand theft auto helped define me. It’s all part of growing up and developing life’s lessons.

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