Sharon – a gamer at heart

Have you ever spent some time with someone you thought you knew really well, only to discover an entirely different side of them? That’s what happened to Dickson, Annie and myself last night as we spent some time with Sharon at her house. I feel like I met someone entirely new last night!

We went to her house mostly to annoy her, keep her awake and away from her work. And boy were we ever successful. Dickson and I discovered a NES (that’s Nintendo Entertainment System) and wanted to hook it up. However, it was already hooked up! So we started looking through the games, and found a Barbie game, which we played for about 30 seconds before it got lame. Eventually, we stuck in Mario Brothers, and that’s where things got interesting.

Dickson played for a while, but eventually died. Then it was Annie’s turn, and she died relatively quickly (she’s clearly not a gamer). When Sharon took the controls to play, it was like I had stepped into an alternate universe! She was so masterful at the famous side-scroller, she knew where all the coins and mushrooms and flowers were, all the secret passages, everything. Not only did she know the features of the game like the back of her hand, she had the timing down pat. And her hand-eye coordination was surprisingly good. In fact, she played so hard and so well, that I saw her head bob to the music. It was nuts!

Sharon claims to not have played for many months, but I don’t see how that’s possible. Dickson has played many games, and Sharon totally schooled him at Mario Bros. Until now, when I thought of Sharon and her hobbies and talents and the like, I’d think of books, English and education, pictures and frames, Starbucks coffee, plays and theatre, etc. Never in a bazillion years would I have thought that Sharon could finish Mario Brothers, and so quickly and skillfully to boot!

Incredulous awe, that’s what I feel.