Energy Boomerang & Becoming a Serious Games Jedi

I'm starting to believe the theory that the energy you put out into the world comes back to you. Ever since I started my Day Creations, I have felt such joy, wonder, and satisfaction with my days. Suddenly, I care about what I'm doing and perform my tasks on purpose. Suddenly, so many good things are coming my way that I almost need to add a Day Creation checkbox to remind myself to just catch my breath.

When this week began, I hadn't signed on to work with any teams at DigiPen. A few folks had asked to meet with me to consult about their intended narrative, but I hadn't been asked to do anything concrete. I generally felt fine about that situation; I have a demanding internship, a narrative design-centric independent study with the incredible Ellen Beeman, and TA positions that will require a lot of my time (if I want to do them well). But part of me was missing the act of working on a driven team, united by a noble goal.

And then, today, I was asked to join a very talented team as a narrative designer, writer, and social media manager for a socially-conscious game for differently-abled folks, using this as the controller:

You play the game with your mind.

Seriously.

More details about this game to come, but I feel like this turn of events supports my energy boomerang theory.

After I showed her my latest Day Creation, my hard-working and talented manager at Microsoft, Michelle "Yoda" Bruno, gave me a handy spiral notebook with grid paper so it will be easier to flip through and check out my progress as the days go by.

For those who are curious, here is a brief explanation of the things I'm tracking:

Daily -

1) Hours of sleep

2) Happiness/mood on a scale of 0-5

3) Energy drinks consumed

4) Taking vitamins on time

5) Spending 10 minutes in nature

6) Reading one of my Dragon Age lore books for 10 minutes

7) Spending 30 minutes on my website (clean-up, blog entry, etc.)

8) Hug my dear bf

9) Time spent packing (moving soon, yay!)

10) Glasses of water consumed

11) Calories consumed

12) Steps taken

Today -

1) write a journal entry for my *new* internship (yay!)

2) write one essay for my TED Fellowship application (perhaps a long shot, but reach for the stars and all that)

3) brainstorm 3 fun titles for my GDC Narrative Summit proposal about matriarchal societies in games

4) assist students for whom I TA by posting useful links

5) filter Twitter notifications out of my inbox because clutter

And what is "brav," you might ask? Michelle explained it to me as more of a concept than a word. The direct translation from German to English is "good," but being brav is more like asking yourself the question, "What can I do today to be the best person I can be today?"

It will be a challenge to keep them up as the semester launches into full Nightmare mode, but I already feel so much better after only a week or so of making them. So often I forget to do things for myself and to check in with others to make sure they're well and know that I'm grateful for them.

So - as part of that - thanks to my dear friend @ElizaLeone3 for (yet another) inspirational coffee chat this past week. Every time that she and I meet, I get a surge of energy from her discipline and unique ideas (and do my best to give some back!). We always seem to teach each other something new without planning on it; ours is a magical friendship for which I'm very grateful.

Copyright Alexandra Lucas 2015