I work at JCPenney, and as far as anyone can tell, it is hardly the bowels of the retail universe. Okay, it's a pretty great job. Matter of fact, one of the first I've actually felt like a part of something. You know, like that block in the neighborhood where everyone knows everything about the other and no one can leave the house without being spied on or gossiped about. But if one is hurt, the others flock to help; yeah that kind of neighborhood. What people DON'T know is my job and the schedule of my hours depend entirely on how many credit card applications I can shove down peoples' throats.
Every shift, it's the same. "Is this going on your JCPenney card today?" Over and over...and over. This quickly led to me not asking, which resulted in less hours and a talk from my boss, instilling the idea in my head that if I did not bring in my quota of credit card applications, hours would be cut.
So what does this have to do with video games? Well, you know how in Sonic you have to collect rings, and if you get 100 rings you get a life? Or in Croc, you have to collect or "save" the Gobbos? Credit card applications soon became rings, Gobbos, coins, stars, wompa fruit, you name it. Suddenly, I was scoring credit card applications left and right, while in my mind I was earning lives, saving Gobbos, playing a game with myself.
This month, I have received the most credit card applications I've ever had since I've started working at JCPenney August 2011. In my head, I tally the numbers and greedily bask in the glory of my success like savoring the image of a new high score. Kids, don't listen to your parents when they tell you life isn't a game, because in all honesty, life is absolutely a game with the best graphics, memory space and narrative. Fusing my video games into real life is maybe the nerdiest thing I've ever done, but it sure as hell gets the job done.
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