1. Marco Thornwell

    Marco Thornwell New Member

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    New guy on the block

    Discussion in 'New Member Introductions' started by Marco Thornwell, Oct 21, 2015.

    Hi all

    I am a son and husband. A public servant. A world traveller (Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Denmark, Turkey, Israel, Jordan). A cooking enthusiast. A role player. And writer.

    These are three incidents which have lead me on the path of a writer...

    Exclusion - Summer 1996
    I think changing schools at six had something to do with it or with age things change. As kids get older they become little imitations of their parents. And as a half Asian half Caucasian seven year old, one doesn't realise the reason he is treated differently, and the other children probably don’t either.

    In a new city, a new house, a new school, new people… I was an outcast, I didn't know how to break in and I didn't know how to start. I began building a coping mechanism… my imagination. A strong memory of then (10 years old), was of myself sitting alone, staring up through the branches and the leaves, appreciating the colours; the shades of light, the spot of warm heat on my cheek and being alone (accepting it).

    I learnt to see things in a different way. This was both very useful and not very useful. At any time in which I was waiting… Waiting for my mother to get all the groceries, go to the doctor’s office, apply for jobs, meet her friends - I would go into my imagination and play there until my mother brought me back to reality. Life went on like this for many years, I think even though I went to school, I got my education elsewhere, however because of this I would often be caught walking around blank-faced as if I was sleepwalking. Kids would make fun of me and call me names (zombie brain).


    Final Fantasy VII - Autumn 1998
    Continuing on my imaginary roller-coaster, my brother scouted out a game from one of the magazines he read. The game was called Final Fantasy VII, it was getting rave reviews. So we decided to try it out, after pleading with mum to buy us a playstation and the game, we plugged it all in and entered the world of Kuzushige and Yoshinori. Unfortunately without a memory card there was only so far we could get… But eventually when we acquired our next quest item we played for hours and hours (probably over one hundred hours…). Playing it over and over again. I fell in love, in love with storytelling, and video games.


    Freedom - Summer 1986 to Current
    I wanted to be free... Society, school, work, rules, friends, bullies and family felt like a cage to me. Life was telling me: study hard or you wont get a good job, work hard or you will get fired, socialise hard or you won't have any friends, stay out of trouble or you will end up in gaol. Reality was scary and I wanted to run away. And I did, I ran away for years and years, I thought I was fighting it but before I realised it, I became trapped in the system. The harder I tried to run away, the stronger the snare became, until I was working 9-5, no education, in debt, wishing for the weekend or the next holiday. I became exactly what I hated, I became society. At this point I was still blind to the world, an ignorant dreamer kid, who thought he would makes his millions and abandon the world to some remote paradise of endless video games, all-you-can-eat-junkfood and beautiful women. However a friend showed me a door. I stepped through and saw reality for the first time. I was no longer afraid. There was still a dilemma, now that I was done running, it seemed I still had a choice to make; reality or freedom. But isn't freedom the same as running away? Imagination is the only real freedom I think we can attain in society. So I guess right now, right at this exact moment that my fingers and forearm muscles collaborate in order to apply pressure to these keyboard keys is the moment I commit myself to my freedom to imagine in society, my freedom to create my future with writing…

    I spent a long time trying to figure what I wanted to do, what my place in the world was. I resisted education, I thought it was stupid and archaic.I didn't want to learn this way, I didn't want to learn these subjects, I wanted to learn, what I wanted to learn. However I didn't know what that was at the time, so I stumbled through the dark for a long while, until one day after years of contemplation, I figured I want to design... And well I am only now just realising what it is I actually wanted to design... and that was my imagination. I wanted to realise my dreams, I wanted to share them, I wanted my imaginations to become reality. Though at the time this translated to wanting to create a video game. This lasted until I realised I had no skills in developing a videogame, but I had an idea in my head for the game and then from there the idea transformed into a story idea.

    Anyways... Hope to see you all around the block
    -Marco
     
  2. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    Welcome to the forum, Marco. :) A fascinating intro post! Glad to hear you've now found something you want to do. I know the feeling of perpetual undecidedness all too well...

    Anyway, here's our New Member Quick Start to get you started. Have fun and see you around!

    -Kat
     
  3. Marco Thornwell

    Marco Thornwell New Member

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    Thanks, will check that out now. :)
     

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