All I Wanted Was an Atari: A GenX Confession

I really wanted an Atari when I was a kid. What do you want that badly now?

I was ten years old when it happened.

I couldn’t believe it was real life.

You know how when you’re a kid and there’s something you really want, but you just can’t seem to get it?

I call it the Ralphie Parker Syndrome.

For me, it wasn’t a “Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time" that I wanted.

It was an Atari 2600.

A few of my “more materially blessed” friends had them. Shelling out over $199 in the early 80s so that I could get my Pong on wasn’t a big financial priority for my folks.

But, I should note that I am an only child.

Which means I eventually get what I want.

And after months of agonizing, it finally arrived.

I remember how magical it was when my dad brought our Atari home.

It turned our regular console TV into a fully functioning arcade game. The same games that cost a whole quarter for a full three minutes of fun at the mall arcade were now constantly free in my living room.

That summer was spent with my friends and me playing Pitfall, Donkey Kong, Asteroids and, the king of them all, Pac-Man. 

The latter was my mom’s favorite.

I can remember taking turns with her devouring power pellets and blinking ghosts.

Atari was my childhood.

It felt like we were living in the future.

Anything was possible.

Video games have changed a bit since then.

Rumor has it that GTA 6 has a, wait for it, $2 Billion production budget.

We don’t live in a Pac-Man world anymore.

I’ve lived through some other “Atari” equivalents of massive tech shifts:

• Snail Mail to Email

• Land Lines to Cell Phones

• Flip Phones to Smart Phones

• DVD/CDs to Streaming

In reality, all of these shifts happened pretty quickly.

For what it’s worth if you’re under 40 years old, I’d encourage you to find a GenX friend. We’re the generation that experienced exactly how our grandparents lived and exactly how everyone lives today. It was a massive shift, and we happened to be the ones to live through it. And, as a rule, we are largely forgotten as a generation. I have high hopes that we will end up being known as the “understanding mentor” generation when it’s all said and done.

Sorry.

I derailed slightly from my point to defend an entire generation.

But, you’ll forgive me. I just told you that I’m old.

Here is my main point:

It’s ok to still really want an Atari.

As you get older, your “Atari” might be material things like a new car or your first house or a European vacation or enough money in your 401(k) to retire.

Those are normal grown-up-Ataris.

But that’s not really what I am talking about.

I’m talking about desiring a great adventure.

There is a version of your life that you really, deeply desire.

It may seem as unlikely as your entire CD collection one day being inside your flip phone.

But that craziness actually happened.

And your dream can happen as well.

I’d be so bold as to say it will happen.

If you want it as bad as I wanted that Atari.

Actually, the very first step to living a great adventure is desiring it so much that you can’t go a day without thinking about it.

Of course, the Atari is just a metaphor.

By the way, so is the new car or first house or dream vacation that you want.

The real dream is spending the rest of your one and only life being fully you.

So, want that.

Badly.

And you’ll get it.