Full-time teacher, part-time gamer.

Whenever I meet anyone new, that’s exactly how I describe myself. I’ve been a teacher since I left college, which is longer ago than I’d care to admit but recent enough to keep me from feeling like a veteran teacher. It’s an unforgiving job, but one I’ve never wanted to trade for anything else. I love working with teenagers (this is not a unique claim, but a very specific one - teenagers are horrible).

Then COVID-19 came along, and I found an activity that I loved just as much as teaching: playing video games. All of a sudden I had nothing but time. School was still happening, sure, but ask anyone who was a student during the year 2020 and they’ll tell you the same thing: Virtual learning, at least at that point, was a joke. I had hours to fill and nowhere to go, since at that point lockdowns were a real aspect of life. It was just me, my roommate, and our third-floor apartment.

So I started gaming. I had a Switch, and my brother had bought me a PS4 about a year prior to the pandemic. These consoles became essential to me as I began to play through the carefully curated catalog that same brother - a video game aficionado - had selected for me. What I discovered was gaming was the perfect escape from what felt like the crumbling of society. With video games I was able to solve puzzles, accomplish incredible feats, and determine the direction the story would go, which complemented my complete lack of real-world control perfectly.

COVID-19 (kind of) calmed down, but gaming still brought me immense joy, even as we resumed a more “normal” life. I discovered that JRPGs were my favorite type of game, and began listening to gaming podcasts and following various streamers on Twitch. As I delved further into the world of gaming, one thing became clear: The gaming industry is still very white, and very male. This is not an absolute statement; I’ve discovered and supported many content creators who don’t fit into that mold. Still, it was difficult to find streamers or podcast hosts who looked and sounded like me, especially when it came to the love and promotion of JRPGs.

So here I am. I’m still teaching, but I also want to carve out a bit more space in the gaming realm to share my thoughts about some of my favorite games, from the perspective of someone who is not white, not a man, and not sure of what they’re doing. It’s going to be a bumpy journey, but I hope you’ll stick along for the ride.