Hanging Up My Phaser
Dear Avid Reader,
Tomorrow I end my tenure as a marshal at Lazercade. And I am sad. I will miss it.
Working as a marshal was, and is, fun. And the reason lies within the business itself, or maybe in my perception of the business itself. I'll explain.
Everything Always Goes Back To Something Else
In my theatre studies I learned one constant truth: your audience wants you to succeed. In the same sense, when working at an arcade, your customers want to have fun. It would take a lot of hard work to mess that up.
So after a few nights I caught on to something. "If I'm having fun," I realized, "Then they have fun." And sure enough, it works. If my group and I were waiting for a game to start, I would start singing. If there was a good song on in the arena, I'd start dancing. During the explain the rules portion, I'd try and crack jokes. I didn't mind trying to embarrass myself, because it was for them. But it wasn't all candy and sunshine, let me tell you.
I took all of this very seriously. The way I see it, my job wasn't to explain rules, flip on a switch, and then stop kids from beating each other up. No, my job was to entertain. My job was to make sure that every person in my game had a good time. If they did, they would come back and spend more money. See, having a good time is still hard work. But it is also fun work. If that makes sense.
Yes. Yes It Does Make Sense
So why am I quitting? Well, it's for purely selfish reasons, I assure you. The main, easiest answer that I can give you is that I want my weekends back. I already have a job during the week. So after a year of working on the weekends, and during the week, and now fitting Grad-School in there as well...I just want some time back for other pursuits. Like blogging.
Contrary to what my last posts may have feared, the new owners are pretty cool bosses. I'd be a fool to say that the changing management hasn't sped up my departure, but certainty isn't the main reason that I'm quitting. I had been thinking about leaving before the place ever went up for sale. But now that things are changing at The 'Cade, it seems like a good time to move on.
People And Museums...The similarities Are Endless
Leaving anything makes me instantly nostalgic. Yes, nostalgic for something that ends tomorrow.
Now that my experience has ended, I can look at it as a completed work. Like when a musician dies; you are able to judge a body of work and you can place that work in a context that is no longer changing because it is in the past. i.e. What events took place during their life, how things led to other things, and et cetera all can be looked at objectively. While they are alive, their music seems open ended because they can make more. But after they die, you can really start looking for how everything fits together.
The same is with life, I suppose. I look back on things like jobs and school terms as an archeologist. I can hold artifacts up and point to their significance in the culture of me. Events that seemed so small (conversations and jokes), now look bigger after time. And things that seemed so important at the time (old wars and fights), now seem trivial.
So I piece together clues of what exactly happened, to see if this past civilization can help the current one. Can any lessons be learned? What can my history teach myself? I must keep digging for the truth.
But this is all academic. The facts are that here in the present, I am going to bid adieu to my career at Lazercade. But still, even now, I wonder how historians will look at this period in my life.
Tomorrow I end my tenure as a marshal at Lazercade. And I am sad. I will miss it.
Working as a marshal was, and is, fun. And the reason lies within the business itself, or maybe in my perception of the business itself. I'll explain.
Everything Always Goes Back To Something Else
In my theatre studies I learned one constant truth: your audience wants you to succeed. In the same sense, when working at an arcade, your customers want to have fun. It would take a lot of hard work to mess that up.
So after a few nights I caught on to something. "If I'm having fun," I realized, "Then they have fun." And sure enough, it works. If my group and I were waiting for a game to start, I would start singing. If there was a good song on in the arena, I'd start dancing. During the explain the rules portion, I'd try and crack jokes. I didn't mind trying to embarrass myself, because it was for them. But it wasn't all candy and sunshine, let me tell you.
I took all of this very seriously. The way I see it, my job wasn't to explain rules, flip on a switch, and then stop kids from beating each other up. No, my job was to entertain. My job was to make sure that every person in my game had a good time. If they did, they would come back and spend more money. See, having a good time is still hard work. But it is also fun work. If that makes sense.
Yes. Yes It Does Make Sense
So why am I quitting? Well, it's for purely selfish reasons, I assure you. The main, easiest answer that I can give you is that I want my weekends back. I already have a job during the week. So after a year of working on the weekends, and during the week, and now fitting Grad-School in there as well...I just want some time back for other pursuits. Like blogging.
Contrary to what my last posts may have feared, the new owners are pretty cool bosses. I'd be a fool to say that the changing management hasn't sped up my departure, but certainty isn't the main reason that I'm quitting. I had been thinking about leaving before the place ever went up for sale. But now that things are changing at The 'Cade, it seems like a good time to move on.
People And Museums...The similarities Are Endless
Leaving anything makes me instantly nostalgic. Yes, nostalgic for something that ends tomorrow.
Now that my experience has ended, I can look at it as a completed work. Like when a musician dies; you are able to judge a body of work and you can place that work in a context that is no longer changing because it is in the past. i.e. What events took place during their life, how things led to other things, and et cetera all can be looked at objectively. While they are alive, their music seems open ended because they can make more. But after they die, you can really start looking for how everything fits together.
The same is with life, I suppose. I look back on things like jobs and school terms as an archeologist. I can hold artifacts up and point to their significance in the culture of me. Events that seemed so small (conversations and jokes), now look bigger after time. And things that seemed so important at the time (old wars and fights), now seem trivial.
So I piece together clues of what exactly happened, to see if this past civilization can help the current one. Can any lessons be learned? What can my history teach myself? I must keep digging for the truth.
But this is all academic. The facts are that here in the present, I am going to bid adieu to my career at Lazercade. But still, even now, I wonder how historians will look at this period in my life.
The Next Post Promises To Be Better,
James
James
posted by James at 5:21 PM
3 Comments:
Like the words of one of my songs, "Never Go Back", I can relate to your post. The one thing you can count on in life is that change is a constant. Things never stay the same and you can't ever return things to the way they used to be. So - you move forward. "Upward and Onward!" "Wagons Ho! "Charge!"
Just another chapter in the history of JLB III.
DJWB
PS
I heard a quote in the training class I attended today, "Once the mind has expanded to take in a new thought, it can never return to it's original shape."
You can be proud of your days as Lazercade marshal, because you gave it your best and you were good at it!
James...you will be missed...there is no other way to say it...I will miss you...you were/are the coolest marshal to have ever marshalled a lazercade game. you gave me my call sign, Daycare, and i thank you for it. it means a lot when you think about it. yet at the same time its so simple...which again when thought about...is just like you...so complex yet so simple...i wish you good luck in life. and i hope to see you around town some time...dont ever forget your followers and all of my teams from here on out will have the name "JAMES' DAYCARE" in rememberence of you.
your friend.
Kyle
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