My boyfriend and I have been dating for over five years now. Like most couples, we have our ups and downs. We make each other laugh, and we make each other angry. To most people, we may look like a pretty normal couple. But there is one major difference that makes us unique: my boyfriend is a gamer. Yes, I will admit it, I am a gamer’s girlfriend.
It all really started about a year ago, when my boyfriend was introduced to the Super Smash Bros competitive gaming world. He’s always been a gamer, saving his money to buy new games, but this time he was taking it serious.
He goes to tournaments all the way in Nebraska almost every weekend, because apparently the Iowa Smash community is weak. So he spends all that gas money to go up there. But it’s his passion. And he’s made a lot of great friends in Nebraska because of this game. He’s truly happy, so I support him. But it’s not the easiest thing in the world. Combining with college and the workload of homework, we rarely see each other. Whenever we try to match up schedules, he’s always at a tournament and I’m busy the other days of the weekend.
He wants me to come with him to a tournament so I can meet his friends and see what it’s really like. He says there’s so much excitement in the air during the tournaments, and that it’s a lot of fun. His gaming name is Ham, and he jokes that my nickname should be Cheese so we could be known as Ham and Cheese in the gaming community.
But truthfully I worry about this passion sometimes. I worry that it’s become all he thinks about, when he should be concentrating on schoolwork and other important things. I plan on having a future with this man, and I want it to be successful.
I’ve tried to understand his world, I really have. We play Smash Brothers together, but I’m terrible at it, and he beats me every time. Or he gets bored and wants to play online, so that he can get practice in. I’m not a gamer, nor do I think I ever will be. Part of this is due to my disability. I have Cerebral Palsy, meaning I have weak muscles in left hand, which means using a gaming controller is nearly impossible. My right hand has to do most of the work, which leads to me being awful.
I do not let this get in the way of our relationship though. When he texts me telling me what place he got in a tournament, I am truly happy for him. He sends me links to the tournament brackets, and I follow them almost religiously throughout the day, texting him to cheer him on, telling him “you go beat so-and-so!” But sometimes, on my worst days, I’m cursing the creators of Nintendo for making the game that has taken up so much of my boyfriend’s time. Tears have been shed over this. I love him, and I would never want to take away the source of his happiness.
I can’t be the only girlfriend who deals with this. One minute you’re so happy for your significant other, the next you’re wallowing in self-pity. It can be a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions, but I wouldn’t want to be on this rollercoaster with anyone else but him.
