As I sit here in my darkened room, half asleep and drugged on pizza, the clock strikes midnight.

Today is my birthday.

Birthdays are peculiar little events for me.  I’m never quite sure whether to embrace them, shun them, humour them or just plain ignore them.  It’s always a constant struggle between crawling underneath my bed for twenty-four hours or hitting the town with a bag of chicken feathers, some red paint, and a giant tube of superglue.

It’s not so much turning one year older that particularly bothers me, or the actual concept or aging.  I am still but a young, ego-centric whipper-snapper, and I’ve already mentally prepared myself for the inevitable day when favourable body parts begin to sag, wrinkles appear and my hair turns white (time to get out the lilac hair dye for my Ayane Dead or Alive cosplay!  Woo hoo!)  Indeed, I’m often found shouting at television adverts that constantly bombard me with the idea that aging is a borderline disease, which must be stamped out with over-priced, over-hyped beauty treatments.  I like the idea of growing old, my life’s experiences slowly carved and sculpted into my face.

The thing that bothers me about birthdays (apart from my mother sobbing down the phone over childhood photo albums) is the idea that, as you age, you tread closer and closer to the Big Bad Wolf that is - THE GROWN UP.

Now, let me tell you some random things about me.

I’ve never eaten an apricot. Pandas are EVIL.  Every few months or so, I go through phases where I accidentally wear clothing inside out, or back-to-front.  Scribbling the word ‘BUM’ on somebody’s forehead is hysterically funny.  I really, REALLY want to be Cat-Ra from the She-Ra cartoons.  I do not know how to make lasagne.  The Eurovision Song Contest is God.  And I desperately want to drive a monster truck.  Then squish cars.  Then listen to them go “SQUIIIIIIISH!”

I can’t imagine ever being a grown-up.  Video gaming began as a passion of the young, and slowly we begin to see our core gamers turning older, pickier, wiser.  For some, they have turned that passion into a career, be it designing, testing, producing or even running around in a pink and black T-shirt trying to get people to pick up a pad and play some games.  For some, as responsibilities from the real world bleed through, that Xbox, Playstation, or Saturn or NES begin to gather dust, and we find ourselves at an age where we are unable to bunk off school for the latest Final Fantasy release. 

But essentially, I think gaming is something that keeps you young.  It keeps you on your toes.  It never slows down, never stops working, never stops moving, and is always constantly evolving.  Look how far we have come, and imagine how far we can go.  From Pong, to Donkey Kong, to Sonic the Hedgehog, Lara Croft, and Sam Fisher.  Graphics, sound, gameplay.  I remember staring at Viruta Racing on the Megadrive, thinking “Wow!  It looks amazing!  How can they possibly get a game looking better than THIS!?”

I can’t see me ever growing up.  I can’t see the computer game industry ever growing up, because it is eternally young at heart.  And as long as I find Ken from Street Fighter II aesthetically pleasing, and as long as I call my “broken” joypad rude words because it made me lose at Bishi Bashi Special, it’s going to stay that way.

Now, I’m off to get destroyed in Rainbow Six:  Lockdown, and blame it on the general humidity in the air.

RARR!