Karma Comes Full Circle

Let me start by saying that I’ve had a knack for video games ever since I was a kid. For some reason, I’ve been innately good at them. Whenever I walked into an arcade (for those who’ve never been in one think of it as a big room with a bunch of PS5s or Xbox Ones, but they’re in giant cabinets and they only each play one game) I made every single quarter that I put into those machines count. The best part of spending my time in arcades wasn’t necessarily just playing the games themselves. Playing against people made the experience so much better. I’m not a necessarily competitive individual, but I do have a problem with the arrogance that came from people, specifically older people. They always seemed to walk up to me with this smug look on their faces like they just expected me to shrink in fear because they were taller. Whenever anyone older than me would face me, they usually had to use a minimum of two plays. The first when they tried to “take it easy on me,” and the second when they found out that was a very bad idea the first time through. Regardless of the outcome, it gave me great pleasure to see that look of arrogance change to one of angry respect or just anger period as they walked away in inevitable frustration. As I grew older, I knew that I would experience that same feeling of being beaten by someone younger than me. I just never thought that experience would also come with an embarrassing bonus.

Fast forward to college several years later. During my college years, I got the chance to experience a very unique internship with Disney. It was a paid summer internship program where, along with college credit for the entire experience, you were given a job at one of the parks similar to the degree program you were currently studying in. During the program, the interns were housed in Disney-owned apartments like dorms and paid for their time put in at their jobs or other jobs they could sign up for, like extra shifts or overtime. After Disney took out the cost of the apartment you stayed in, you usually had some money left over to do whatever you pleased. Some saved up for their futures while some spent it on alcohol. I fell back to old habits, spending mine on electronics and games. Enter Disney Quest.

Disney Quest was unlike any arcade I’d ever walked into. Arcades are usually located in a big room in a mall. Disney Quest, on the other hand, was like someone turned a mall into a giant arcade. There were several areas and several different types of games, including virtual reality (which was relatively new at the time). But the source of my karmic kick came from an interactive game based off the cartoon The Mighty Ducks.

The game itself was simple in design. Up to eight or nine people would step onto giant platforms designed like hockey pucks. The platform you stepped on corresponded with the virtual puck on the screen. The goal of the game was to use the platform to guide your puck past the electronic goalie on the screen the most times out of everyone playing. After a line that resembled one of the rides in the other parks, I finally got my chance. I stepped onto a puck with seven other people and a child younger than everyone else. I was in the back, the kid was in the center and someone that looked oddly familiar to me was on one of the front pucks. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but just the back of his head made me think I’d seen him before. I shook it off and focused on the game. Less than 5 minutes later, everyone’s humiliation was completed. The kid, who was about 7 or 8, trounced every single one of us. I think he ended up at least double everyone else’s score. After cheers erupted for his triumph, I kind of laughed to myself and thought “So that’s what that feels like.” Unfortunately for me, the night wasn’t quite over for me.

Out of expendable money to give to Disney Quest, I went back to my apartment with an air of defeat following me like a cloud. I walked in the door and decided to cheer myself up with one of my favorite movies at the time. I popped Pirates Of The Carribean into the DVD player and plopped down on the couch. As the moment arrived for everyone’s favorite captain to make his introduction, the phone rang. I paused the movie and answered the phone. One of my work friends was really excited about something that happened earlier in the night.

“Do you know what just happened? Do you know who was just over at Disney Quest?!”

“I don’t know. Who?”

“JOHNNY DEPP!”

“Really?! He was in Disney Quest tonight?!”

“Yeah! And people said he got beaten by some 8-year-old on that Mighty Ducks air hockey game! Crazy right?!”

I felt my shoulders sink as I turned back to the TV to see Johnny Depp ironically frozen on my TV screen with a giant smirk. Not only had I been beaten by someone half my age at an arcade game, I was also standing feet away from a major celebrity and missed the chance to meet him because I skulked away in slight shame. Ain’t that a karmic kick in the head.