Video Games Saved My Life

I have heard a lot of arguments on both sides of the video game discussion. Some parents are ok with letting their kids play video games, as long as their time is monitored as well as content. Some parents think that video games just rot your brain and make kids very anti-social. It's really all in how you parent and how much leeway you give your kids and also your child's maturity level. No matter what side of the fence you are on in this discussion, one thing is for certain. Video games saved my life and gave me a long sought after sense of purpose.

I started streaming on Twitch full time about a month ago and it started out as just something I thought would be fun to do. Little did I know, my life was about to take a turn, finally, for the better. It all started with me just running some games of Fortnite with my friends and I thought I would give it a try. I had no idea it would turn into something I felt compelled to do for a living. Now I'm no where near making money with enough regularity to support my family as a streamer/content creator but I know that making money as a streamer is a process. I'm not streaming to get rich or become famous. I don't care about those things. I'm trying my best to be successful for a whole list of other reasons.

It started innocently enough as something I was afraid to try but thought it would be fun. I decided to go completely family friendly and that is where my story really begins. I decided to start streaming because I saw two videos. The first was a streamer named timthetatman. He ran a random game and his duos partner in Fortnite ended up being a young boy who was around 10 years old. This young man talked about wanting to stream himself but didn't have the ability at such a young age to afford the gaming PC he needed to really do what he wanted to do. Throughout the game, this young man was very polite and timthetatman's chat decided to go over to this young man's stream and started donating him money. In a matter of minutes, this young man had almost all the money he needed to buy everything he needed to be a professional streamer. Hearing the young man thank everyone and hearing him fighting back tears, timthetatman started to fight back tears of his own with thousands of people watching him live on stream. Tim was so impressed with the young mans behavior and politeness, he told the young man that he personally wanted to speak to his parents to make sure it was ok with them that Tim himself was going to finish paying for this young mans computer so he could live out his dreams.

The other video was from Dr. Lupo, another very popular streamer on twitch. He was doing a live charity stream raising money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Watching him get very emotional over smashing his goal of around $1,000,000 for St. Jude's was emotional for me too since I am a single father of 3 children. That wasn't even the most emotional part of the stream though. Dr. Lupo's wife told him that he had a phone call from the head honcho at Twitch. His wife also brought in a gift wrapped that Dr. Lupo had to wait to open but everyone knew what it was. It was a check. Dr. Lupo opened the check after an emotional speech from the gentlemen from Twitch, only to discover that Twitch was proud to donate $1,000,000 to his live stream for St. Jude's causing him to not only smash his goal but he also became very understandably emotional. I knew what I wanted to do and the question was not how, it was when.

Now that I have given you some backstory, I can finally tell you how my streaming career has come along so far. In only 2 weeks, I was able to hit affiliate with Twitch, where I was able to start generating income and able to get donations and cheers. I was also able to earn ad revenue as well. Obviously everything started out slow but it has really gained some momentum. I have had some kids come into my streams who have opened up to me and my chat about being bullied. It was not only heart breaking because of how young these kids were or the sadness in their voices, but I have kids their ages. It really hit me as I was made fun of a lot when I was younger for a variety of reasons. I understand how bad it hurts and how depressed people feel that are in that situation. I am so happy that they came into my stream and I was able to brighten their day just by running a friendly game of Fortnite and making them laugh and smile during the game. These kids have since come back into my streams and have also told me that I am their favorite streamer! It's not because I'm good at the game. It's because I give them a safe, judgement free place to play a video game where they never have to worry about being bullied because I will never allow it. When other kids have come in and talked about not wanting to live anymore because of being bullied, I get emotional the way my community rallies around these kids and lifts them up and lets them know that there are people out there who care.

I stream because I want to make a difference. I stream because I want those kids to have a safe place to play one of their favorite games without the fear of being bullied or made fun of. I want to stream because I would love to one day be able to do charity streams for my small community to help in every way possible. I want to be able to help donate to the local food bank. I want to help families that may not have much of a Christmas be able to have a wonderful Christmas. I want all kids to have toys, clothes, and shoes. I want to help single moms and dads who are doing their best but struggling because I have been there. I want to help my community, then surrounding communities, then eventually my home state of Indiana in any way I can. For the first time in my 42 years on this Earth I feel like I have purpose. I feel complete inside. I feel like that huge void I had inside is gone. I have always wanted to help people and now that I have felt the sadness and despair from some of these young kids, I know I am doing the right thing. I feel like God has put me in a position to make a difference but I still have to put in the work to be successful enough to accomplish my goals.

Video games literally saved my life and pulled me out of my darkness I have lived in most of my life. I can now pull on past experiences and relate to people and help people and genuinely make a difference in the world. After all, that's what this is all about for me. I want to help as many people as possible and as long as everyone that comes into my stream leaves with a smile on their face and their stomachs hurting from laughing, then I have done my job and I have made at least a small difference in the world.