I will say right now that I am no "gamer." I've played video games for nearly as long as I can remember, starting with the original NES, but I have never identified myself as a gamer and actually hadn't played a video game quite so intently since the last Final Fantasy that wasn't terrible. Because I had never advertised myself as being officially into video games though, JP was pretty surprised that I got so into Red Dead.
I never really talked about video games before that because I'm just not that good at them. I enjoy them. But I'm never going to win an award for my virtual gunslinging and hogtying abilities. This is one of many things that I enjoy, that I can do tolerably well (key word here is "tolerably") but at which I will probably never excel. I'm ok with that on a personal level, but I sometimes get a little funny about playing games in front of or with people who are "gamers," because I'm pretty certain I'm embarrass myself. In recent weeks however, I've gradually forced myself to get over this reticence and just play, dammit, because it's fun.
In a moment of weakness however I lamented my lack of ability and expressed the opinion that I probably shouldn't do things that I'm not great at.
"People do things they're not great at all the time," JP assured me. "Why do you think people go bowling?! Or, uh... go bowling?"
Afterward, I sat pondering this. Of course it's ok to do things you're not good at, as long as you enjoy them. There are some things (like bowling) though, that you're simply not expected to be good at. The expectation is, in fact, that you'll suck,and that's fine, because everyone kind of sucks. I wondered what other activities were like this, and came up with karaoke and adult kickball.
Can anybody think of some other activities where the expectation is not to do well?
