I was a game addict, and it was not the same kind of gaming that is normally seen in Woodstock. I was at the point where gaming is a bigger portion of my life than sleeping, eating, studying combined. At the time, I used to spend about 14 hours on games daily. That left six hours for school (my school was a half-day), four hours for sleep, and two hours for everything else. My parents were well aware of this addiction and had tried to get me off my computer multiple times. That never worked; I always found ways around. First they put a password on the computer. I found my way to get in. So they created a second level of password (Windows XP can have two different passwords). I found my way to bypass it again. Then they confiscated the computer and kept it in their room. They locked their room when they go out, so I stole the key and got a copy made. For months the secondary key was a success: nobody had any idea I had full access into my parents’ room. They still trusted me to get off gaming on my own, as I promised that I would.

Grade 7 was the time when I finally hit academic difficulties. My teachers complained about my performance in school, and my parents thought they needed to do something. They convinced my cousin to move in our house and live with me as a roommate. They believed he could have a better influence on me, which did happen to an extend. He got me to exercise regularly, so I was getting somewhat fit and the amount of time I spent on games was reduced by a lot, but that didn’t mean I stopped breaking in my parents’ room. Of course, nothing lasts forever. Eventually my cousin found out – he got home early one time, and I got caught trying to clean up the proofs.

This was when my parents took my gaming addiction to the next level. This was when they decided that I needed to be sent to a boarding school and Woodstock was my choice. Eventually, with the computer-free environment I gave up on gaming, but I never forgot how I failed to quit myself.