GoNintendo 'End of Day' thoughts - How GoNintendo came to be: Part 2

Major snow here in NJ, just like we thought! Things are sketchy enough for schools to already call in their closings for Wednesday morning, including Mom Brain’s school. Even teachers love their snow days! While I may be snowed in tomorrow as well, it’s still a regular work day for me! See you in a few, short hours.

Glad to see the first part of this feature was well received. I didn’t know so many other people would be interested in hearing the story! I’m not sure how many parts this feature is going to have, as I’m still breaking down the crucial moments in my head. Anyway, let’s move on with part two, and we’ll worry about the rest later!

As I said yesterday, a Nintendo website that I frequented was looking for a new staffer. I’m not going to say the name of the site, as I don’t want to get into those specifics! It’s best to keep that information to myself, and it really doesn’t have any impact on the story. The important part relates to an open position on a Nintendo site, and I was going to roll the dice and see how things would work out!

When I was considering throwing my hat into the ring for this position, I never thought of it as the start of a possible career. First off, I didn’t think I would get the job. I just thought it would be cool to write for a Nintendo-related site. I’ve always been into video games, with Nintendo being my favorite company by far. Rather than just playing games to show my appreciation, writing about them would be a whole new experience. What better place to share my love of Nintendo than with a community of other Nintendo fans?!

To the best of my recollection, I had to write a review for a game that was new at the time. I labored over that review for about a week. I wanted to make sure that I put together the best possible feature I could. Not too wordy, everything spelled right, a clear point to get across…all that good stuff. Everytime I read what I put together, I’d find something else to change around. Eventually I had to just cut myself off and know that I’d never be happy with what I did. I worried about this article for long enough, and what I managed to piece together was enough to represent my style and approach. With hesitation, I fired off an email to the submission form.

A few weeks went by without a word, and I figured that I had just been skipped over. No big surprise for me, since I wasn’t expecting anything to come of it. After a few more days of giving up on the idea, I found an email waiting for me. To my shock, I was in the running for the position! I learned that after a bunch of submitted articles were sent in, I was in the final three. It was my work up against that of two others, and we had to once again prove what we could do.

I was asked to put together another feature for the staff to read. This was something the final three had to work on. Our final pieces would be compared among staffers, and then a decision would be made. I had a hell of a time writing the first piece, and now I was going to worry about this next feature even more! This chance meant the world to me, and I wanted to make sure I really nailed it this time.

This lead to another painful writing session for myself, and I took every last possible second I could to put together an article. There was a deadline to meet, and I believe I sent my finished piece off the day before the deadline. Once again, I didn’t think that my final article was anything special, nor did I believe that it would land me the position. Don’t get me wrong…I really wanted it to work out for me! I just didn’t have a very optimistic viewpoint at the time. Luckily for me, I had a vacation coming up to take my mind off the whole situation.

I went down to the Jersey shore for a week with a bunch of friends, including the entire podcast crew that you know today. We had a house rented out for the week, and I knew that the time I would have with these guys would take my mind off the competitive position I was gunning for. That’s exactly what happened…I was having so much fun at the beach that all my worries were disappearing. I wasn’t even thinking about the job opportunity until midway through the week. That’s when one friend took out her laptop and asked if anyone had email to check.

I logged in just to see if I had anything new. Little did I know that an email from the website was waiting for me. The moment I saw it, I snuck off with the laptop to my room. I locked the door and sat down to have a read. I remember crossing fingers on one hand as I opened the email. Unfortunately, I don’t think I was crossing them tightly enough.

While I was never expecting to get the job, it was still upsetting to see that I missed out on the position. The staffer that emailed me let me know that it actually came down to me and one of the other three, and the team agonized over who to choose. I was also told that it was very close, but I missed out on the spot. They said that something could come up down the road, and if it did they would be sure to let me know. The email was kind, informative and very well put together. Even with all that, I couldn’t help but feeling bummed.

What was I going to do now? That’s all I could think of while I was on the rest of my vacation. I still had fun, but anytime I had a free moment away from friends, my thoughts would race back to how I just missed out. I didn’t realize how much I was pegging on landing that job, even if I was telling myself that I would never get it. Losing out on a chance at a paying job that let me share my Nintendo passion was a double whammy.

Little did I know that this bummer of a situation would actually be the very, very early beginnings of where I am now.