tl;dr – In going after every coin in the game, I learned to work hard to earn something in exchange for something I need.
There was a Spongebob Squarepants marathon playing on Nickelodeon the other night, and around the third hour in, I mindlessly wondered which character in the show reflected me the most. Without thinking, I immediately thought of my two favorite characters: Squidward and Mr. Krabs.
I think fundamentally that’s who I am, a frustrated introvert who listens to NPR and likes money. But upon realizing this cold, hard truth, I began thinking how my money-hogging mentality was developed in the first place.
And instinctively my first memory went to playing Super Mario Land on the original Game Boy. Unlike everyone around me at the time, I didn’t have a NES or Duck Hunt when I was a kid. I remember not even understanding the concept of Super Mario Land, since the only other video game experience I ever had was Tetris. “The man jumps? What’s so special about that?” It wasn’t until my brother called me a dumbass out of frustration and told me to go right did I finally understand the point of the game: to get to the end of the stage, on the right.
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