Over 80 followers since I created my account? Honestly, I am a bit shocked. Still, thanks for the follows. I do have to apologize for not being on often, but I do have a laptop that doesn’t want to charge batteries. As soon as I get this situation taken care of you’ll see me online more often whether I’m posting, vlogging, or just simply restreeming. Until then, enjoy my little introduction...well, not exactly a little.
Name: Terrance D’Andre Jones
Current Age: 23
Ethnicity: African American
Height: 6’0”
Eyes: Brown
Hometown: Waukegan, IL
Hobbies: Gaming, Reading, Daydreaming
Zodiac Sign: Libra (Based off the 12, not 13)
Reason for Steemit: $$$
Reason for Life: Unknown
Adolescent School Years
I was born and raised in Waukegan throughout majority of my life. I don’t have much memory of my life under 2 besides having 2 dogs, listening to Boys II Men, and being exposed to Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot.
Gaming has been a part of my life since that time. Around 4ish I started going to school. Although I would prefer video games I didn’t really start getting into actual sports until second grade. That’s about 5 years it took me to realize that there were other things to do around me. That’s also the first time that I was able to conversate with people easily. From there, I no longer tuned out to the activities that was going on in my gym class. That’s when I truly started getting competitive.
I would like to say that my school life has been like any other person’s normal school life, but no one’s normal, and my path definitely wasn’t average. During summer of my high school years I was invited to an organization called the National Hispanic Institute (NHI). Although I was confused as to why I was invited in the first place it was an overall life-changing experience. They were one of the few organizations that was raising leaders. Since then life has been hard for me, because I was trying to figure out how to lead from that point on. Still haven’t figured it out to this day. On top of that, somewhere between my freshman and sophomore year I found out from my mother that I had moderate autistic syndromes. Although I still think about that in general I don’t say anything about it. There’s no need to announce that to others in my opinion.
As for sports, the only thing that’s changed is that I wasn’t running for a ball or a position. I was going the distance. After a good 6 years of soccer I stopped playing to do cross country and track. Running is my natural thing to do, and I planned to use that to my advantage. Although I went to sectionals every year I never did experienced running at a state’s level. I was okay with it though, because I convinced myself that I was going to the Olympics in 2016. I graduated Waukegan High School in the class of 2012 being in the top 25% academically.
College Years
College was not easy at all. It all started with not having a physical to do sports. So I could not do cross country. From there, everything spiraled out of control. Activities outside helped me to stay active and stay focused. So not being able to play all semester had a bad impact on the school work that I did. The next semester I had a chance to get the physical, but it didn’t even matter because my GPA was too low for me to do sports. So I ended up watching my Olympic dreams run off...without me. However, for what I loss I was bound to find something else in the near future.
I found another organization that was helping to deliver leadership, Men of Vision, one of the many chapels of the Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB) organization. Because I was too busy trying to reverse the downward spiral on my own it wasn’t enough for it to be life changing. I did find some value, however. I went to two national meetings during the time that I was semi-active. Although I can’t remember much of what was said I did pick up some things out of the meeting like this quote: “This is a game of chess, not checkers.” Forgive me on my bad memory.
The value in playing video games started to show up in my face over time. On May 20, 2012 Nintendo shut down their Wi-Fi servers for majority of the games on the Wii. I was one of those people that was affected. As soon as the servers shut down I started practicing a certain game in hopes that I can find a tournament. Almost a year and a half later I found a place near my school that does weekly tournaments. To this day I have yet to convince my parents the value that the video games hold, but I do collect a souvenir every chance I get to go to a national event. Eventually, they’ll have to notice since the competitive scene is still growing.
I changed my major once, and even then I still don’t know whether I want to continue that major or not. I’m lost. Yet, I continued through the struggle. I graduated from the College of Lake County with an Associates of Arts degree as of last May.
Current Plans
I’m currently trying to write down my plans. In the past I had write them down, but I’ve gotten distracted to the point where I once dismissed the idea of having it down on paper. I’m trying that again, because I’m trying to test out how the Law of Attraction works. I’ve gotten part of what I wanted on my dream board. Now I’m trying to at least find out why it has worked on a poster board compared to just writing it on paper….of course, I still have to fill my dream board first. It's been over a good year since I last updated it.
What do I want to do with the rest of my life? I don’t know I can’t answer that. What do I want to do at the current moment? Physically join a gaming community. That desire has been there for some time. Ever since I saw a bunch of opportunities this year for having your own online business the desire has grown stronger. My idea is this: if I can donate a certain amount of money to the community the community should be able to take care of itself. I don’t know what to call this idea, but I’ll momentary stick it in the business category. I’m starting to see that those who are successful are usually in a group that is able to recycle their money throughout the group as many times as possible. Crowdfunding is an example...I think. I figure since gamers usually spend a lot of money for equipment and traveling and donating for others to do the same it would make sense to me to donate to that particular community that’s establish. I just need to get to know and meet key people within that community.
As for the site itself, I’m just here to learn more about what’s out there. Of course sites like Facebook and Twitter can do that, but it’s not as helpful as this site. I see more positive things on this site. Therefore, I’m planning to invest my time on the site. Although I see myself advertising games to play and maybe a bit of their history I really don’t know what to expect, even with the time I’ve spent lurking here. Hopefully, I’ll have it all figured out by then. All I know is to expect me online daily when I finally get my things together.