10 September, 2018
“Let’s play The Game of Life!,” I said.
Mai grabs the box and places it on the table and takes a seat. Michelle runs into the kitchen and we sit around the box. After we open the box, Michelle starts searching and grabbing all of the game pieces.
“I want the green car!,” Michelle yells.
“We have to place everything down in their place before we start the game,” I said.
She places the green car piece beside her, so no one can can have it. Whenever we play this game, we know to give Michelle the green car piece.
“Who wants to be the banker?,” I asked, looking at both of them.
“I’ll do it!”, Mai exclaimed.
Mai organizes the money and cards into different stacks depending on their name, color or worth. She deals everyone $200,000, so everyone can start the game with some money. After we place everything down, Mai and I get our car pieces.
“I want yellow,” Mai said.
“I guess I’ll go with pink. Everybody get a character piece,” I said.
Everyone places a pink person in our car piece. Each of us spins the dial to see which one of us gets to go first. Mai spins the dial and gets a 7. Michelle spins the dial and gets a 3. I spin the dial and get a 1. Mai gets to go first, then Michelle, and I get to go last. We place our car pieces on the starting line.
“Would you like to college or have a career?,” I asked Mai.
“I want to go to college,” she said.
She pays the bank $100,000 and spins the dial and gets a 3. Mai zooms to the third space and picks a card.
The card says: “You make a fruit smoothie! Spin to see how smooth it is. Spin: 1-5, Collect: $50,000; Spin: 6-10, Collect: $100,000.”
She spins and gets a 5, and receives $50,000 from the bank.
“What do you want to do?,” I asked Michelle.
“I want have a career,” she said.
Mai fans out the Career Cards, so Michelle can pick her career. She gets Police Officer. Michelle spins and gets a 3. She lands in her space and gets a card.
Her card says: “Win a “Beautiful Forehead” contest!” COLLECT 40K FROM BANK”
Mai gives her $40,000 and puts it into her pile.
“I’m going to college,” I said.
I pay the bank $100,000 and spin the dial to get a 4. I land in the space and pick up a card.
The card says: “You write a children’s book! Tell everyone what it’s about. COLLECT 40K FROM BANK.”
Mai hands me $40,000. I take the money and put it in my money pile. Mai spins the dial and gets a 3.
Her card says: “You learn to skydive! Link up with everyone in formation. PAY BANK 70K.”
…
I finish into retirement and choose millionaire mansion to live in with my husband and children. Michelle finishes and picks millionaire mansion, and eventually Mai finishes as well and also picks millionaire mansion. We count up all our cards, houses and money. We also count up our children to get our child bonus. Mai wins the game with $1,000,600. I come in with a close second with $394,000 and Michelle ends up in last place with $70,000.
“This game sucks. I don’t like The Game of Life,” Michelle said.
I picked this game because it represents life. Everyone experiences it and has to deal with life. Everyone has to choose what path to take and go on from there. I am very decisive person and I like to choose the best option for me. I am scared that if I pick the wrong thing, then my future will be bad as well. I will re-trace my steps and waste time when I should’ve picked this. There are times when I’m playing The Game of Life, I’d rather pick a career than college. I know I don’t have to pick college or a career. Based on my experiences, I can judge what is best for me. When The Game of Life is over, everyone is at the same place, retirement. Everyone can have the same amount of money, someone could be in debt or someone can be a millionaire. There are many open doors for you. When you walk into one, all the other ones will close. When you go through that door, there will be another hallway full of open doors. Once you get to a dead-end, you find that all the other doors ended up going to one place.
-Felicia Tran
Toontown 