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A year and a half ago, my life changed in one moment, and the 5 distinct sounds that came before it will always stay with me. In my parents words, I was addicted to video games. They didn’t want me playing before finals in junior year, but I didn’t know just what they’d do if they found out. The first sound was my mom’ van pulling into the driveway. My mind was thrown into panic mode. I scrambled to tell my teammates I needed the game to end immediately. The second sound was the gate to my front door closing. I now had enough time left to exit out of the game, close my laptop, and pull some textbook from my shelf and pretend to study. Things were looking bad, but I clung to the feeling that things would be ok. The third sound was the front door of my house opening. A loud slam told me what I needed to know. As my computer momentarily froze on the victory screen, I stopped feeling like things would be ok.The sinking feeling in my stomach told me something was different this time. The fourth sound was my mom running up the stairs. If only she hadn’t run up the stairs, I thought to myself. If only one thing had happened differently, maybe things today would be a lot different. The fifth sound was me. I slammed my laptop screen down. And as the final moment occurred, as my mom walked in to hear my laptop slam closed, hear my breathing slowly start to become regular again, and see the look of fear on my face, the trajectory of my life was altered. The fallout from that event was enough to make me question the path my life was on. My parents saw me falling prey to my addiction. But where my parents saw a weakness, I saw an opportunity. I saw two solutions to the problem: stop playing video games completely, or take control of my problems and make them work for me. Since then, I have made it my goal to become as good at this game as I could be, and to find out how to become successful through it. As I’ve grown, I’ve been able to look back at this scene with a fresh eye. I see now that my parents only wanted what they thought was best for me, and I can’t disagree with them for it. The path I’m on now may not be exactly what my parents wanted, but I’m still hopeful. Hopeful not only that things will work out for me, but also that my parents and I can reach a compromise that we are both happy with.