In the end, all the thousands of hours I would have wasted in perfecting my moves would’ve led me to these 5 minutes:
[Super Mario Bros. Speedrun in 4:57.69 (World Record)] (Viewer #2,259,442)
All those people wishing they could have those thousands of wasted hours back, and I never lost them.
That’s my happy thought for the day.
I never played Mario either, but I made up for it by wasting many evenings with Plants vs. Zombies.
In the past twelve years I have cried on very few occasions: the deaths of family and friends and beloved animals; when I found out one loved one’s kidney was a perfect match for another loved one who needed a kidney…
…And the first time I saw a video of someone beating Super Mario Bros 3 in eleven minutes and eleven seconds.
I remember clearly; it was December sixteenth, 2003. It is, to date, the only time my friend and I of twenty-three years have seen each other cry. And I attended his father’s funeral.