Literary Spotlight-- Life Through Faded Eyes: Part One

So, my name  is Charlie Osborn, and this is my story.  This isn't just a story about me, because I have met a bunch of friends along the way.  I guess all of our stories are intertwined like the roots of a tree, we are still independent, yet we are all connected.  I've never done anything like this, but I figured it all needed a name, so here goes nothing:  Life Through Faded Eyes.

Not a bad name, is it?  Well I hope not, because you are going to be seeing it as the title for as long as I continue writing.  Lucky for you, that might not be a long time.  I'm not smart in any way, really, and I can definitely say I'm not a good writer.  I like to think of myself as an average teenager, but really I hardly fit the bill.  The defining feature of my generation is technology, mostly smart phones, tablets, and PlayStations.  The closest thing to modern technology I have is a phone with an antennae that greatly resembles the one from Jurassic Park, and my phone has gone through just as much abuse as the one in Jurassic Park.  Okay, I might be exaggerating a little.

I have dropped the phone at least 1,000 times.  Last winter, in December, I lost my phone for nearly a month.  I couldn't find it anywhere, and it was around the time we had a big snowstorm hit, so I hadn't gone much further outside than to my mailbox.  Once the snow melted, I found the old phone laying in the driveway next to my dad's truck.  It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was getting out of the vehicle.  I picked it up, dusted it off, and it still worked just fine after I charged it back up in the house.  I still have it and everything, but there is only one thing I want to say:  could a smartphone do that?

I guess the most up-to-date technology I have is a Xbox 360.  This was one of the oldest ones made, and now it's being held together by fifty shades of Duct Tape.  The only game I play on it is Skyrim, and for good reason.  It is the best game I know where I can escape the real world, and be someone else.  Even a cat or a lizard.  I can be a brave warrior who likes decapitating orcs, or I can be a sneaky thief who steals people's clothes right off their bodies.  Yes, that is possible in the game too.  To be completely honest, I probably spend more time in Skyrim than I do my own life.  I could walk the world of Skyrim blindfolded, but I probably couldn't navigate my own small town in Kentucky, and you might think that's sad, but isn't that a great feat of memorization?

So really, I don't get out of the house much, but this story isn't about me living the life of a great indoors-man.  This is about something greater.  Something that changed my life.  And, well, I guess you will have to keep reading if you want to find out.  I got a little sidetracked, but I'll get to the real story next time, I promise.

-Dylan Crigger