Attitude chapter 2

by William Bak

We can say that the first 2 or 3 weeks were wasted, nothing had changed. It’s really not easy for me to change my attitude. Things changed in the 4th week. This is where I started to change my attitude. My dad was kind enough to give me an extra week to have something to write about, otherwise I would have written the same chapter 1.

What happened is that I discovered a new and old game called Starcraft 2, the strategy game. He’s new to me because I’ve never played. It’s old because I’ve seen my dad play this game for years! Okay, okay, you wonder what has Starcraft 2 to do with my attitude? For that, we have to go back to the first few weeks.

During the first 3 weeks, it was very hard for me to change my attitude because I had a good habit of always arguing with my parents, no matter what they said. To be honest, I hadn’t listened to what they were telling me yet and I was already talking about why and blah blah. I know I wasn’t very smart, but the words came out before I even knew it. My problem is more a question of habits than a question of attitude. Okay, a matter of bad habits.

My father warned me more than once that I had to listen before speaking. Even better, I also had to think after listening not to say bullshit. And you know what? I’ve been talking bullshit for 3 weeks! If I would have written this chapter a little earlier, I would have written the same 500 words as last time.

To be honest, at first I didn’t care (sorry Dad). After a very special night, the idea of ​​changing my attitude to gain altitude finally arrived. Here is the story:

I asked my dad to play Starcraft 2, the game he used to play with his friends when I was younger. My dad found a website to install Starcrafts 2 and we started playing together. At first it was to reconnect, but more and more it became fun. We didn’t pretend to please each other, my father and I really had fun! Especially when we were winning!

Starcraft 2 is a strategy game. There are 3 races, the Terrans (Humans), the Zergs (yucky aliens) and the Protoss (other highly intelligent aliens). At first, I played with the Terrans because it was easy to learn how to play. In a few days, I also learned to play with the Protoss which are much stronger.

At first it was easy but there were different levels of difficulty. When we started playing and it was easy for my father than for me. I was learning to play with the Protoss. We were playing and the artificial intelligence got smarter and smarter. It became more and more of a challenge to win. We had to develop new strategies to get there.

Having new strategies meant changing! And you know it’s not easy for me to change! We kept losing! My dad said it was my fault! And you know what? I told him it wasn’t my fault! Even if my graphs and results placed me dead last. I argued anyway because it’s me! It didn’t change the fact that we had lost and we kept losing again and again. It wasn’t even fun anymore!

What did I do? It must be Starcraft 2 that is rotten! I listen to myself out loud and no, I love Starcraft 2 and it’s super fun, it’s me who is rotten. And my father even told me that I was rotten at soccer for the same reason: I don’t play as a team! I was super frustrated!

It took me a while, but he was right. I wanted to keep playing Starcraft 2 and started listening and following my dad’s orders! You know what? Well, we started winning! Even against increasingly intelligent computers! If the computer is getting smarter, so must I be smarter! And the only way to do that was to stop arguing!

To win, I changed my attitude and started listening. Following orders is not easy for me. But, quickly, I was rewarded. We started winning again! Now I listen to my dad’s orders and play as a team! It is now a bigger and bigger challenge for the computer to beat me and my dad! Thanks to Starcraft 2, I have become more mature.

To win, you need 2 things. Money and intelligence. If you’re smart and you don’t have any money, it’s useless and you lose. If we have money and we don’t know what to do, we also lose! My dad was over the moon when he heard me! I was very surprised! Finally, I got a compliment from my dad! It’s the first compliment of the year! 2022.

And the compliments continued. My report card arrived and I had good grades! Especially in French writing, I have 80%! Writing with my father helped me a lot! And now we have proof! My father was super happy with me! Believe me, it doesn’t happen often! I changed my attitude and we won. I kept my altitude and the compliments continued! My goal now is to change the title of this book from Attitude to Altitude.