Do What You Love With Those That You Love
Updated: Mar 3
Saint Valentine’s Day is on the horizon. It represents a day set aside in commemoration and celebration of love. I’m sharing the videos below from Professor DM of the Dungeon Craft YouTube channel, not in an attempt to encourage you to play tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) or to instruct you in how to run a better TTRPG for your family and/or friends, but rather to encourage you to seize the opportunities to spend time with the people that you love doing the things that you love doing.
TTRPGs were a part of my life growing up, although they admittedly weren’t as big a part of my life as the games are for Professor DM and other TTRPG enthusiasts. As a teenager and as a young adult, I had a number of competing interests including competitive sports and bodyboarding that often won out over any desire to play a TTRPG. But I have fond memories of the games that I did play. That undoubtedly has fueled my recently found nostalgia for the games and my desire to play them yet again.
I can’t say that I ever hid my enjoyment of TTRPGs from others. I don’t ever recall not playing a TTRPG because I was worried about what someone else might think or say. The same could be said for my other interests such as playing baseball. My time spent practicing and playing baseball with my family members, friends, and teammates was time well-spent. Same for practicing and playing ice hockey and inline roller hockey. Same for bodyboarding and “splashing around” in the ocean. I have declined other invitations because I already had plans to do something that I enjoyed. I don’t have any real regrets and I have some great memories. But I have no doubt that people sometimes choose to forego participating in some activity or pastime because their partner isn’t an enthusiast. That is likely to be a mistake if it is something that you really enjoy. I would encourage you to rethink that practice.
The first video may not exactly be up your alley if you’re not a gamer, but I encourage you to at least watch the later part of the video (~11:51). It is a great reminder to “seize the day” and the opportunities that you have today to spend time doing what you love with the people that you love. In the moment, you likely never know when you will have spent your last moment with someone. That realization is likely to come to you only after the fact. The second video encourages you to be true to yourself and to not compromise in a misguided attempt to win approval, favor, and love. It also points to the fact that couples usually have some shared interests even if are not carbon copies of each other.
Enjoy!
“How to run an EPIC ending in D&D.”
“I Dumped My Girlfriend to Play D&D (Ep. #117)”
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