Wednesday, October 20, 2010

What I Learned from Halo Reach

For those of you who know me, you'll know about my huge disdain for a little thing we like to call XBox 360 and specifically a game called Halo. I was the person who declared that I would never have one in my house because they were a waste of time, brain space, etc. etc. and the list goes on. 

There's the occasional time that I don't mind playing at other peoples houses, if it was Street Fighter or UFC (these bring me back to my childhood, so it doesn't bother me as much). 

So I'm sure you could imagine my dismay when I got a phone call one night a few months back, informing me that my husband to be (at the time) had gone out and purchased a beloved XBox's.

I had decided from that moment on that I hated it.  I hated the time spent on it, the shooting, the sound effects. I couldn't understand why I'd come home to a bunch of guys on my couch shooting people, telling me how much fun they were having. "It's male bonding time, Jacq!" I was told. Sure.

Well, my thoughts towards XBox took a sudden change the other day.  We were on our way home from dinner with friends, and were trying to decide what to do for the evening. Going to the movies was an option, but we really didn't want to spend money.  I wanted to rent UFC for XBox, but we decided against it once again due to the "not wanting to spend money" factor.

When we got home, Matt talked about how he wanted to play Halo for a bit.  A part of me inside got a little riled up, because I wanted to spend time with him. Then I realized: "If I want to show my husband how much I love him, and that I just want to spend time with him, I better learn how to play Halo."

So that's what we did. We sat down, he showed me the controls and I tried to journey through a maze to search and destroy.  I have to give the man credit.  This game is harder than it looks. And quite possibly not as mindless as I thought.

All of this is to say, sometimes there are things that our significant other enjoys doing that we can't stand, such as watching sports, listening to certain music, looking at cars, etc. etc. That's when it becomes important to lay down our pride a little bit, and try to find the enjoyment too. It's amazing how much that can change your relationship ... for the better, I might add.

Do I still hate XBox? No, not really.  Do I like XBox? Not particularly.  But am I willing to give up some time to play with my husband because I know it means a lot to him? Absolutely.
I know he enjoys it and I enjoy it too.

Oh, and apparently it makes me look pretty hot too!


Cheers.