Tag: Fortnite

Living in a Post-Covid World

While Covid isn’t technically over with yet, it has slowed down enough for the world to return to somewhat normal. We don’t need masks anymore. We don’t have restrictions on where we can go or what we can do. Life is back to how it was…or is it? With cases on the rise again, we might wind up doing this whole thing all over again.

Looking back on the last two years, all I can think about is how weird it really was. We all essentially lost two years of our lives. It’s like two years just didn’t exist. We couldn’t go anywhere. We couldn’t do anything. Nothing was open. We were confined to our homes.

While Covid did mess a lot up, (like my trip to Germany that’s been put on hold for over two years) it also showed us that there is still good in the worst of times. Because I was required to sit at home when Covid started back in 2020, I met some really awesome people through Twitch and Discord and through playing games like Fortnite and Apex.

But this blog post isn’t about a time during Covid. This is about after it. Basically, my life is back to normal. I’m working full-time. I can go and do whatever I want when I want. I can try to regain some of what was lost over the last two years. I’ve even gone to a few concerts recently.

But going back to normal also comes with a price. I don’t have as much time to play video games. I don’t have as much time to just hang around on Twitch or Discord. And sadly, I don’t really talk to most of those friends I’ve made during the pandemic. Life just got too busy it seems. I do hear from a few every now and then, but we don’t talk like we used to.

The two years we weren’t able to do anything were truly some of the weirdest moments of my life. The world came to a halt and it’s something I never thought I’d see happen. It’ll be interesting to think about Covid times again years from now. How we reacted. What we did. What it was like. It was just such a strange time, and one I won’t forget.

Now That I’m 30…

For the last month of being 29, I was dreading being 30. I felt like I wasn’t successful enough. I felt like I still had so much to do before I hit 30. It was quite stressful. And for what reason? None at all. I’m serious. I was stressing over nothing…literally nothing.

I’ve been 30 for about a month. I’ve had time to think in that month. What I thought was going to be a disaster, really isn’t. Sure, I’m not in the field I want to be. I still have student debt, but who doesn’t at this point. I was so focused on what could go wrong, that I failed to look at the things that could go right.

First of all, I have a job that isn’t at all bad. Not only do I have an awesome job, but I also have awesome benefits with that job. Sure, work can get crazy and stressful at times, but those times are rare and I can usually see them coming ahead of time. I’m also still in school, but I’m learning things that I hope to use in my future career as a film maker.

Before I turned 30 I submitted a short film of mine to a couple contests. I haven’t heard anything back yet, and I probably won’t for a few more months, but I’m glad I did it. It’ll allow others to see what I can write. It could also open the door for an opportunity that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

I also had a YouTube video from three years ago go “viral”. I just checked on my channel one day and this one video had thousands and thousands of views. The more it got viewed, the more popular it became. As of writing this, it has almost 100,000 views and almost 3,000 likes. I’ve also gained over 300 subscribers on YouTube as a result of it. The video is short, and it’s of me playing Fortnite. If you are curious, the video can be seen here (viral Fortnite video).

I feel like being 30 is actually a good thing. It’s a time for me to discover who I really am. It’s a time for me to live. It’s a time to try new things. It’s a time to travel all over. Being 30 feels like the actual beginning of my adult life. I felt like a kid in my late teens and 20s. I felt like I was still growing up. Now that I’m 30, I feel like I’m in my prime and I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want.

A World of Battle Royale

The first battle Royale I ever played was Fortnite. Fortnite was a new kind of game for me. It was something I had never played before. Playing a shooter was nothing new. I’ve been playing shooters since Wolfenstein 3D. But Fortnite added a new element to the game: building.

Fortnite exploded. And I firmly believe it was because it was the first full cross-platform game. PC players could play with Xbox and Playstation players. And later they added Switch and mobile to the list. It was truly a game you can play with all your friends. And while it was fun at first, Fortnite had become stale and filled with try hards. Playing casually doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe I’m just bad at the game, but always being out-built makes me want to rage quit.

I spent some time on Warzone but it felt like there was too much going on. I’d always get killed super fast. I couldn’t kill anyone and my team always carried me. I don’t think I’ve ever won a game of Warzone either. But that’s ok. Warzone is the past.

Aside from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the only other game to really have my attention is Apex Legends. Apex is a game I dabbled in earlier on. I’d play a game here or there and then quit. It was fun, but I wanted to play other stuff. Recently that changed.

I’ve been all about Apex lately. I love the gameplay. I love the pace of the games. I love the choice of weapons and the legends to play as. Apex takes some getting used to, but once you figure out the mechanics. it’s super fun to play. It’s been the one game I’ve played the most in the last week or 2. I just can’t stop playing it.

I don’t win often, but when I do win, it feels like a major accomplishment. It feels like I earned a win. Fortnite wins don’t always feel earned. They are sometimes really easy to get. Apex is hard, but not impossible. And while I’m still learning about all the little aspects of the game, I’m sure I’ll be playing Apex for a long time to come.