My roommate and I waited in silence as our other roommate pulled into the driveway. We exchanged confused looks as he sat in his car for a seemingly excessive amount of time. Finally, we gave up our venture and went back to what we had been doing...I went into my room to read a book and he sat down in the living room to watch TV. All of a sudden I heard a yell, followed by footsteps running. I walked out the door to my room and something flew past my ear. "What the F__K was that?" I yelled. And then I saw it...my roommate hadn't been waiting in his car for no reason. He had been loading his new NERF gun. I ran into my room and slammed the door as he began to pelt me with more darts, and anxiously tried to load my own firearm.
It all started seemingly innocently, when one of our friends decided to give away his collection of these guns, and we were the only takers. Three guns for three roommates. Perfect karma.
I took the replica sniper rifle, and the 6-shooter and other rifle were dispersed among the other two. The madness really began Tuesday night. At about 11:00 that night, I had the bright idea to get one roommate to join me in storming the other roommate's room after he had gone to bed for the night. I stood in front of the door while Ryan stood to the side and pushed the door open. We then began pelting Drew with darts while he screamed profanities at us. We walked back upstairs feeling kind of bad because we had disturbed his privacy and possibly his sleep. However, I realized 10 minutes later that he wasn't put off in the least. That's because he came upstairs and began shooting madly at the two of us in retaliation. As we ran fought back and forth for about 10 minutes, the two dogs ran around barking at the madness going on around them. I made sure that when I went to bed that night, I locked my door.
It all came to a head last night with the incident of Ryan coming into the house and shooting us with the NEW gun he had just bought. This thing actually hurts if it hits you, and is pretty deadly accurate. I'm still shocked that he spent about $30 on a new NERF gun just to protect himself. Well, after this happened we proceeded to spend roughly 90 minutes late last night running around the house shooting at each other. The dogs were outside, probably wondering the same thing you are: What are three guys in their mid-20's doing playing with NERF guns.
The answer is simple. Guys don't like the idea of growing up. Think about it: we play video games, watch the sports we played as kids, watch our favorite movies from our childhood, and listen to the same music. This doesn't apply to everyone but it does to a lot of my friends. I spend my evenings playing with NERF guns, playing original Nintendo, and watching early seasons of the Simpsons and Darkwing Duck, among other things. My favorite movie is Back to the Future. Ever since Death Magnetic came out, all I've listened to is Metallica. What I'm trying to say is that I was so influenced by our culture when I was growing up that I have held onto my interests from that time and am still passionate about them. Maybe I'm going through a quarter-life crisis, especially with my obsession with cartoons lately. But I think that I just am not ready to leave my childhood behind, especially now that I'm in a better financial position to enjoy what I want. I can now afford to buy these NERF guns I never had as a kid, and rent or but all those movies I loved watching. I have more access to the music of the time. So I think I'm making up now for everything I didn't get enough of as a kid. And I believe most guys go through this at some point in their 20's once they've been independent for awhile.
I never thought I would be playing with NERF guns when I was 27, but all I have to say to that is: "Why wouldn't I be?"
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