I used to feel guilty about playing video games. Not a kid, though. As a kid, I played a lot of video games and really enjoyed it. It was only when I became an adult that I started feeling guilty about it.

I still have fond memories of those hot summer days in Phoenix, in between 6th and 7th grade, where I would spend hours playing Starcraft. I remember the winter breaks in High School where I'd always manage to get sucked back into World of Warcraft. And some of my fondest memories of being a kid will always be playing Counter Strike with my friends. Taking apart my cheap dell pc and loading it, along with the heavy CRT, into a laundry basket and having my mom drive me to my friends house so we could play video games until 3am ruled.

Unfortunately after I got older, the culture I was surrounded with didn't really approve of video games. It was mostly seen as a hobby for losers and a waste of time. Another prevailing idea I found myself surrounded by was that I should be spending all my free time working on a side hustle, trying to build a business. I was impressionable so I just nodded-along. Any time I'd play video games for more than an hour I'd feel a sharp twinge of guilt.

Later I came to realize that this was all crap — that spending a few hours playing a dumb video game is not inherently worse than watching a dumb movie, or reading a dumb book. And, spending 8 hours a day working, and then trying to spend the remaining hours of non-work time (or even some of the time I should have been sleeping) doing extra work was exhausting.

Now, I enjoy video games as a hobby of mine. My interest in them comes and goes seasonally (I think my brain can't handle more than one primary interest at a time), so I typically spend a few months at a time focused on either video games, side projects, or some other new found interest.

And I feel great about it.