My escape

Sometimes we all want to escape our ordinary, tiresome lives and just be. We find escape routes in various places, books, movies, music, sports, and so on. You can imagine my need to escape the hard facts of life. I’m trapped in a shell that can’t sustain me very well. My armor is broken. Guess I feel a bit like Ironman when his high tech suit loses all power and he just stands around like a statue hoping someone will let him out. Super hero reference there, couldn’t help myself, being the nerd that I am.

 To clarify: there are so many things I want to do, but my chains always pull me back. Luckily, I have found my escape, and it’s not too uncommon today. My great escape is gaming. I boot up the computer, get into position and then I leave this world. It’s not a screen, it’s a gateway to wherever your heart desires. I spend most of my time in a little place called Azeroth, familiar name to some, I’m sure. In there my handicap doesn’t matter, my chains are broken and I can be whoever I want to be. In there I feel normal.

 In Azeroth I take on different forms, one day I’m Ibelin Redmoore, famed detective and nobleman. He fights forces of evil, flirts with women and makes friends and enemies wherever he goes. I could go on and on about this avatar I created, but best save some for later, right? The next day I might be in a more upbeat mood and I take on the hat of Jerome Walker, a western adventurer and gunslinger with a Texan accent and a perfect aim. He’s a bit of a joker, never takes life too seriously and likes a good party with his friends.




Ibelin Redmoore.

Jerome Walker.

 


















Jerome and Ibelin are expansions of myself, different parts of me. Ibelin was my first successful role-playing character in a game; he’s been with me the past 7 years or so now. Time flies, huh? Ibelin has found love, been drunk, messed up badly a few times, but he dusts himself off and moves on. In real life I need to keep positive, fight the hardships and emerge with a smile on my lips. Too many guys with Duchennes have fallen prey to hopelessness and negativity; I wish I could have warned some of them.

 There are times I just want to break down and cry, sometimes I crumble, but like Ibelin I’ll always rise again. There is another super hero reference coming, just so you know! I find it fitting. After falling into a dark well full of bats as a kid, a young Bruce Wayne remembers something wise his father once told him. “Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up again”. This line is true in so many ways to me; the writers really got it spot on. I’ve fallen more times than I can remember, but here I am, still breathing and I will continue to do so.