"The Last of Us Changed My Life"

[Aldro]

the-pi-guy said:

dahuman said:

Then he hasn't thought about it enough and was very narrow sighted to start with since both the options of having children or not having children are equally valid and it's more ideal to go with the flow if you understand the pros and cons as each way to go can be a good life depending on how you treat it. Sounds more like a responsibility issue rather than the issue of rather he wants a kid or not. I find it kind of sad that he has to second guess his life choice based on an influence that's not his own intellect, IMO of course.

I love the game though, and you know this too, I just think it's weird that he's blending that thing into his actual life, like huh?

That's a rather strange way of looking at it, but here are my thoughts on that matter.  

There's a difference between experiencing and thinking about something.  You might think something would work out and that you'd be fine with it, but once you actually experience something you might find that the reality is different.  Whether it is because you find that the perception is different than you expected or whether the reality is different from what you expected.  

You might think "Oh well, I can ignore things that are annoying, I can deal with annoying kids."  Well perhaps the reality of it is that you could deal with it for a day, but long term, the persistance becomes more than you can bear.  Or perhaps the reality is that most kids aren't as annoying as you'd expect.  

Someone might wonder what it is like to have kids.  Finding out isn't as simple as thinking about it.  Television, books, etc. give little insight in terms of feelings and what to expect.  Whether that is from not having the words to describe the feeling or whether it is from the exaggeration that is often given.  

I suspect that whether someone wants to have kids has to do with their experience with kids, not any thought of well it doesn't seem like something I want.  If someone had the experience of a bunch of annoying kids, then they may not want to have kids.  I personally have had a great experience with kids.  

I like thinking about things, but actually experiencing something is a whole different cake.  A thought is not a subsitute for an experience.  Though in this case a game is a rather unusual place to have an experience.  But people find all sorts of places for such thoughts.  Thinking must go hand and hand with experience.  

Well said!