I never got to know who first discovered love at first sight, but my thanks are in order.
Life is a collection of memories and experiences. Most of those experiences though insignificant on the surface, actually go a long way.
Trying to beat traffic to an important interview, I had to board a bike just to get to my destination on time. As we manoeuvered through the traffic, I saw the building but the famous signboard was nowhere in sight.
I guess the owner must've rented it out to another business or simply changed business, I wouldn't know as I didn't stop to enquire. But I remembered the signboard from more than a decade ago designed in big colored letters with the caption GAMEPLANET.
Gaming has always been an interesting part of my life, not because I'm good at it but because of how I found my love for it on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.
Ask anyone when their most interesting school experience was and most would tell you it was in high school. Junior high school was that period for me, we were young, we had the attention from the beautiful girls, the world was definitely in our hands back then.
It was one of such days I walked across the sidewalk along the traffic congested road with my gang of school friends. The traffic wasn't the most interesting thing on that road even though there was more than enough dramatic entertainment going on, the interesting thing was where we were headed.
Thick as thieves, we were an unusual bunch. I was the quiet voice of reason in the group, while the others were in between daring and cautious when the need arose.
Game planet was the destination and the object of curiosity for me (not them), would be the Play Station console.
Game planet wasn't some fancy Disneyland type game place, it was just the usual game center where people played games.
What made this one special to me though was that all my friends had been there and at that point, I'd heard enough exaggerated stories to make me a curious cat.
"Guy I'll thrash you nothing less than 10 goals " my friend Sparrow was boasting of his prowess on PES.
'Yen yen yen, that's how you'll end up getting thrashed yourself" Carter countered
'Winning Eleven is my forte, if you beat me there then I'll call you boss" another friend added.
All these while I was quiet because no one knew that my gaming abilities were limited to my phone only. Finally we were at Game planet and there was already a huge crowd of students from other schools who came to have fun just like us.
We eventually got a space to play and as I stared at the pads and PlayStation 2 gaming console, it was love at first sight.
I let my friends play and as the game progressed, I finally summoned courage to ask what each button did. After a bit of taunting they finally took their time to explain how it worked.
My first match though, I was thoroughly thrashed by the no smiling Carter who didn't care it was my first game. First half and i immediately dropped the gamepad, it was better to learn playing as a single player with the computers.
And so the crusade began, everyday after school we were at GAMEPLANET squandering our lunch money on either PES or winning Eleven.
"Goaaaalll " I screamed apparently way too loud as everyone paused to stare at me.
It was my first goal playing against my friends and I'd had to wait almost two weeks to get it done, everyone could stare all they wanted. I still got thrashed though, but the goal was one to remember.
Eventually a neighbor got his own PlayStation console and I stopped visiting GAMEPLANET to play except on a few occasions.
I now had one closer to home and could actually spend my lunch money on food, it was a deal I just couldn't pass up.