Bad Habits.

Some things in life are just too addictive. You start doing them and you just can't stop. Most people have been part of an addiction at least once or twice in their life which they usually refer at as "a hobby". As long as you keep enjoying this hobby of yours, and as long as it doesn't cost you valuable time from your life, everything is fine. You kill some time, perhaps also have fun and possibly meet new people. But what happens when this hobby slowly begins to take up most of your time,and people near you begin to notice that you devote less and less time to them?
Things can get really ugly, I should know. I used to play a game,called World of Warcraft (WoW).You may or may not have heard of it stranger, odds are that you have.I began playing casually,but slowly while I was playing, I realized that there was some serious competition involved in that game.The more you were playing,the better your character would be. I am a competitive person by nature,stranger. I like being the best at what I do. These facts combined, I ended up spending more and more time in this game,ignoring many people in my life, such as my friends (those who had not yet succumbed to it already at least) and more importantly, my girlfriend Christine.I was addicted, it was functioning like a drug for me.All the attempts my relatives and family were making to wake me up, make me realize that it was just a waste of time playing 6-7 hours per day were in vain.All I was seeing were pixels in front of a computer screen changing shapes and colors.Yes, I did meet some worthy people in that game, even made some friends.But I almost stopped meeting Christine and hanging out with my friends.I was becoming an e-zombie,playing WoW all day. I was someone else in that game,someone i enjoying being.I was leading groups of adventurers into raiding a mythical monster's lair,instructing them and guiding them, and simultaneously losing my social life and money.I was so deeply addicted, that apart from the countless hours I would spend playing the game, I would often visit other sites and learn how to make WoW gold, or learn which the last piece of good equipment for my character was.
Four years I was playing that game. Looking back now, I want them back.But I know nobody can give them back to me. All I am left with are the experiences I had in game and at least some of them are quite nice, I might add. Maybe I was supposed to learn something from all these years. Move on, evaluate some things in life that are usually taken for granted.And I did.
After I stopped WoW and became semi-social again, I started appreciating the small joys of life a bit more, became more talkative and generally a happier person.I promised not to ever let a bad habit-or hobby for that matter- take over all my spare time again and instead divide this valuable gift in many different activities.If you have to learn something from this post,then here it is,stranger; Each thing in life has it's own value, and people tend to overestimate the value of some things.Weigh them carefully, and think twice before you become addicted with something.