My name is Liv Lindstrom, and, yes, Liv is short for Olivia. My full name happens to be Olivia Rose, but my friends - and sometimes my mom - just call me Liv. I guess it makes them think of Liv Tyler or something. Anyway, I graduated high school in 2008 and I spent an entire year in college before I realized it wasn't a big enough of a challenge for me.
I always need a challenge and, to me, there's nothing challenging about opening a textbook, listening to an hour-long lecture, and doing five pages of homework due two days later. Challenging would be something like fifteen to twenty pages of homework due the next morning along with a science experiment and a in-depth report on one of any element on the periodic table. Can you tell I had trouble in high school slowing down to the other students work speed?
Which is exactly why I had hoped college would be much, much more challenging . . . and was proven wrong yet again. I returned to my hometown, Corry, Pa, at the end of the year and, after much consideration, told my family I was done with college. My mother was furious and told me to get out. She had only said it because she was mad, but I knew if I stayed, I'd hear about how I had so much potential that would get wasted in such a small town as Corry.
I left and moved in with my two aunts, Shelly and Tara, until I could afford a place of my own. I was talking with a Navy recruiter one day because I play pool at a nearby bar, Shakers, and he asked if I had ever taken the ASVAB. I made a shot that sent three of my balls each into a corner pocket and told him I took it back in eleventh grade. As I made another shot, he asked what my score had been. With a final shot sending the eight ball into the side pocket, I said, "I believe my score was a 96."
I never expected to see a Navy man gawk at me the way he did when I told him my score. He asked me if I had ever considered joining the military. Of course, my reply was I thought about it, but I needed a challenge to get through it or things would be too dull and uninteresting. He told me if things weren't challenging enough for me in the Navy, they'd take it up a notch. He asked if I was interested. I said, "I'm as interested as a fat kid is interested in chocolate cake."
So, for the past six months, I've been training for boot camp, or basic training. I had to lose some weight, though my aunts believe my weight's just fine. When you weigh 210 pounds and the maximum weight for your height is 175 pounds, your weight isn't 'just fine'. It's apparently a little over.
Anyway, this story isn't about my getting ready for the military. It's about how my two favorite obsessions - challenges and video games - got me into something that would change my entire outlook on life. You see, I'm a complete video game nerd and wouldn't mind spending hours and hours playing on my aunt's Play Station 2 or Nintendo 64. Older systems, I know, but still great.
It was during my stay with my aunts when I started playing Kingdom Hearts, an interesting role-play game which included several different Disney characters plus a few characters from Final Fantasy. I play quite frequently, but no matter how hard I try, I've never been too good at defeating Ansem in any of the three games. Well, one day I was home alone, so I popped in the disc for the original Kingdom Hearts and pushed in the Memory Card.
As the PS2 was loading, a giant rumbling sound erupted through the neighborhood and I could swear we were in the middle of an earthquake. I looked outside and a giant crack was tearing through the street and was headed toward the house. I jumped up, but not in time before the crack began separating the apartment building. I leapt across the schism, ran down the stairs, and ran out into the street.
I turned and watched in horror as the apartment building collapsed in on itself before falling into the giant canyon. I prayed that the tenants of the lower apartment had not been in there. Then my horror increased as I watched the Little Caesar's behind the apartment crumble into the crack. I was frozen in place. My mom was supposed to be working that day!! I started running toward the building to see if anyone had survived.
Suddenly, a guy with long white hair and topaz-colored eyes appeared in my way, a sword in his hand. He held his sword tight, preparing to attack me. I was abotu to run when a sword almost identical to the Keyblade magically appeared in my hand. "This is too wierd and impossible," I think to myself, but hold the sword and get ready to defend myself against this Ansem look-alike.
'Ansem' attacked, and I managed to bring the sword up to block his attack, but the force of his blow was so powerful it knocked me backwards and into the schism.
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