My brother and I were never close. He is 5 years older than me and didn’t make the best choices in his life, and I was a mama's boy who loved to play sports. He was aggressive towards my mom and me, and always getting into trouble. Thankfully, we always managed to find that one connection between us in video games. My brother and I always played Legend of Zelda together; well, he would play, and I would watch for enemies and tell him where to go. Even on days when my brother would be a bully, or would yell at me, we would always make up as soon as he turned on the game. I remember when the game wasn't properly working, we would have to blow into the cartridge to get it to work, even though the instructions on the cartridge said not to. I would always say to myself, “How does this work?” blowing into a box to get imaginary dust out of it. Even then, I knew I would grow up to become a huge video game player.
Over the years, more advanced gaming systems came out, like the original Xbox and the Playstation 2.  Around this time, my brother was sent away to a military academy for troubled kids, so I was on my own for learning the games.  I became more attached as each version came out, and was naturally pretty good, even without much practice. One of my cousins was also a big gamer, so I started going to his house a lot to play because he had Xbox Live, which let him play against people who weren’t there with us. It was different, because I didn’t have to try to be quiet, and was able to be more expressive and even could yell at my cousin without getting in trouble.  We would always play Halo on his Xbox, which was the most popular game out at the time. I was still a small kid then, and he would say,” Da*n, dude, how did you get so good at this?” I would always just smile and shrug because I really couldn’t explain how I was so good. It’s not like I really played the games with my brother, I usually had just watched him play.
After a year of playing at my cousin’s house, he decided to get a new console, called the Xbox 360. This system changed my gaming world. It wasn't long after that, that I absolutely had to have one of my own. In March of 2009, my mom took me to Best Buy and helped me purchase my first Xbox 360. I remember running into Best Buy, jumping around saying,” Mom, walk faster!” She thought it was hilarious to walk as slow as she could knowing that I couldn't stand to wait.
Call of Duty 2 was the first game I bought for the 360, and is still one of the most fun I have ever played. To take it to the next level, I needed Xbox Live, so I used my own money to buy it. The concept of Call of Duty (COD) on Xbox Live seemed really awesome. It allowed me to talk to people from all over the world that liked my game, I could play against different skill levels and really learn to be good at it.  By this time, my brother had moved out of the house, and it was a confusing time because I was both relieved and sad. What I didn’t expect was that the Xbox live experience would release some hidden anger and bring out the monster in me. This monster would rip through my whole 4 foot 9 inch self causing me to turn into an entirely different person. Everyone has always told me that I’m a super nice kid and how sweet I am.  However, when I started playing COD on Xbox Live, people would tell me that they didn’t want to be anywhere near me while I was playing.  I would be overcome by what is known as Gamer’s Rage. The rage wasn’t caused by the game itself, but by the people that would play with me on Live:  eight year olds that would trash talk and curse, 40 year olds that used the anonymous aspect of Live to act like teenagers, and others that would only play to purposely try to ruin the game or cheat. The rage that this game and the people that I played against caused me to throw my controller at the wall, the television, and occasionally down the stairs. I couldn't tell you how many hundreds of dollars I spent on new headsets and controllers over the next few years.  Call of Duty would eventually cause me to break my Ipod in half and punch a hole through my door! After the tenth time my mother grounded me for swearing at my game, I decided to get rid of Call of Duty and take a break from gaming. I would then only use my Xbox for the exclusives like listening to music and watching videos.
After a long ending of Junior High and an even longer beginning of High School, I started slowly moving away from everything involved with Xbox. Heading into 10th grade, I had surgery on my ankle, and wasn’t able to get around much. Ironically, Microsoft chose this moment to announce the release date for the Xbox One. This system was highly advanced. They called it the “Next Gen System,” meaning that it was top notch, high tech, best thing around and going to be around for quite some time. This system wasnt about just gaming anymore. Xbox One now added ways to watch live television, track your fantasy team, connect to apps like YouTube, Skype, Twitch, and Upload. The app Upload allowed you to make montages and edit game clips without having to send them to the actual computer. The Xbox One also has an advanced Kinect, which now can recognize who you are, record game clips, and you can talk to it, enabling you to not having to use a controller and still be able to access your entire console. This made me fall in love and want to jump right back into it. 
My mom said, “Ethan, you have a serious raging problem when you play games. You are not getting another console.”
I told her time and time again that I changed. I said, “I’ve grown up, I know better, I know how to control my anger and not get completely raged over fake games.” Plus, with my brother having grown up and changed into a much nicer person, I didn’t have anything left to rage about. She still said no. It took weeks to finally annoy her so much that she had no other choice but buy into the master plan of getting my new Xbox.
Of course, there was a catch, “If I let you get this Xbox, I get total access to it. I can take it away if you are out of control, I can take it away if you don't listen to me, and I can take it away if you talk back to me.”
I stuttered, “But how...what if I...how do you...”
She cut me off saying,” That’s the only way Ethan. No buts. No nothing.” So I looked to the floor, nodded, and walked to my room.
Not more than a week after convincing my mom to let me get the Xbox One, it came out. I raced home after a long day of school and then paced up and down the hallway waiting for my mom to get home. I was so excited and so impatient, that I could have ran through the Polar Vortex that was brewing outside just to get my Xbox. I paced back and forth through the house, constantly checking the windows and opening the doors to see if she was there. I couldn’t wait any longer. I tried to pass time by napping and playing on my old Xbox to try to get back to the swing of things, but none of it worked. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to find something to keep me busy. Then I hear something, the sound of what might be my mom’s high heels clicking through the house, “Click, Click, Click.” I sit up in my bed, trying to snipe if I can hear my mom’s daily walk in the house phone conversation she has every day after work. I burst out of my room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen where I see my mom. Of course, there she is on the phone. She sticks her hand out, keys in them saying, “Go wait in the car, be there in a sec.” I quickly grab the keys from her hand and bolt to the car. Not long after getting to the car, she comes out.
While on our way to GameStop, she pulled her joke where she drives super slow, 10 mph under the speed limit to be exact. I say, “Still not funny, Mom,” which of course only makes her want to do it even more. Once we arrive at GameStop, we walk in to find that nobody is there. We both look at each other in disbelief. We both thought the place was going to be packed because of the Xbox release, but we were wrong. We were in and out in ten minutes.
We pulled into the driveway, just as a light covering of snow had settled,  and I jumped out of the still-moving car with my Xbox so I can get right to playing it. I raced inside and into my room. It felt like Christmas morning when I was little. I opened the box, carefully removing every piece like was priceless treasure found in King Tut’s Tomb.I wasn’t sure if I was feeling more excited or nervous, but I was certain this was one of the best moments of my life.