University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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HER MOTHER TOLD HER AS SHE LEFT HER GRANDMOTHERQS HOUSE, VM STILL LJPSET ABOUT You. I HOPE ITlS WORTH IT TO YOU. When Thompson went to her parents' home a week later, her mother was not there. Her father announced to her with a somber face that they would take back her car and not pay her tuition. The conversation about her sexuality never happened. Thompson next saw her parents four months later, during Thanksgiving at her grandparents, house, where the extended family gathered. She and her parents didnlt tall: vvith each other, but her mother told her as she left her grandmothers house, I'm still upset about you. I hope it's worth it to youf, Thompson chose not to go back home for Christmas, instead going to Dallas to the house of her mother's best friend, who disagreed with her mothers negative response to Thompson's sexuality. After coming back from Dallas, she returned to her parents' home. Het father told her he worried about her riding a hike to work and decided to give her the car back. Thompson said she tried to repair the relationship with her pa rents and her mother brought in a priest. He sympathized with Thompson and suggested they call each other every vveek. After returning to Lawrence, she faithfully called her parents for the hrst several weeks. Thompson 's frustration and anger grew bigger when they nev er called or called her back. She eventually stopped calling them. Now she has to find a place to go every holiday, which makes her feel lonely. She tries to think about positives she gained through the separation, such as her O8 - O9 l JAYHAWKEIR financial independence. Her mother recently called and said she was always welcome to come home, but Thompson wasn't ready to spend time with her mother, who still wants her to undergo counseling to reorient her sexuality. 'EI told my mother it is part of my everyday life, and I donlt want to have a relationship with people who don't accept me, Thompson said. Someday, she hopes to have a family with a same-sex partner and restore a relationship with her parents when they fully understand and embrace her. JULIAN RIVERA Rivera inadvertently came out of the closet in his patents, kitchen. Thatls where his mother found an essay left there by his sister Shaina that referred to his sexuality. Until that time, he had struggled with whether he could be both gay and a good son, deciding that staying quiet was one way to protect himself and his parents. In my head, I thought that's something they don't need to knowf' he said. It's something that would com- plicate their life more -the way they interact with their friends, like, 'Oh, they have a gay son? I never want that sort of pity on my parents. After his mother read Shainals essay, she walked into her sister's room sobbing, asking if it was true. Shaina said their parents, who had been in denial ofjulianas sexual orientation, were both worried that their son would experience discrimination and that they wouldn't have grandchildren. KI was mad at my sister at Hrst. I wanted it to be part of my storyfl he said. f'Now, I have to move on. Despite the revelation, Rivera was relieved when his parents still treated him well. He and his parents haven,t yet talked at length about his sexuality, but he is hoping to have that conversation soon. Both ofhis parents came from the Philippines to work as nurses in the 1970s. Rivera was born in the United States and grew up in Lenexa. Rivera struggled with his sexual identity in high school. Many friends at school knew he was gay, but his parents clidn't. He said having a double life aggravated him. He recalled having an impulse to yell at his parents one evening when they expressed disapproval of his gay friends at school. They were the only people who understood mef' he said. I just really wanted to say, 6You know, Fm gaylm Rivera even once considered attending reorientation therapy to change his sexual orientation because it con- flicted with his Catholic faith and parents' expectations. I thought that was what would make them happy, Rivera said. Reading books about homosexuality made him real- ize that the therapy could not change his sexual orienta- tion and could only be harmful to him. Rivera said his mother was always like a best friend. They talk about everything, from his major to family gossip. They now need to talk about his sexuality. He said he once introduced his boyfriend to her as his friend, and she cooked him a meal. Rivera said he was sad his mother recognized his boyfriend as just one of his college friends and didn't know how important he was to him. Rivera graduates in spring and said he hopes to have the conversation about his sexuality with his parents before then. 'KI hope they continue to be proud of me and still see me as the same person.

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RETRCFITTED he living room ofmy apartment is littered with older systems: A Super Nintendo, an N64 and a Playstation Kas well as an Xbox 360 and Wiil rest be- side the TV. This, I reason, is a testament to my sense of video game history. I grew up with a Super Nintendo, so I know how far games have come. Video games are quickly accumulating a cel- ebrated history. The popu- larity took offwith original arcade games in the 1970s. Pac-Man was the original video game icon to be popu- lar in his own right, which furthered the popularity ofgames. The Magnavox Odyssey brought video games into peoples' homes in 1972 and in 1977 the At- ari 26OO system made home video games popular and laid the groundwork for the Nintendo and Sega Systems to come. Even those arcade games are still relevant. Nostalgia is a driving force of the popularity of older games. Gene Nutt, owner of Game Nut, attributes nostalgia as a factor in sales but also sees the popularity of older games continuing to grow. What makes people keep coming back to the older games, though? This era of new games immerses players in realistic environments, but it can't make up for some character- istics that older games still have land gamers still cravel. The plotlines, the stories, and the game itself aren't as quality as the older gamesf says Sean Pesnell, owner of Game Guy. Games used to be simpler, but now it seems as if newer games push the too much of a good thing ten- dencyf' They have to Ht one storyline into three games. So, complexity in games may have hurt as much as it helped. joe Noh, Overland Park senior, notices that ef- fect since games transitioned from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. HI think there was a loss of innocence between that transition, he says. The simplicity is what was lost. The controllers on the older Nintendo systems, the Atari and the Sega Genesis, had just a few buttons to press, which made the learning curve a lot easier on players. Bowman compares that simplicity to that of brain teasers. '4It serves a similar function to Sudoku. It,s puzzles, it's strategy, it's working your mind, but it's not a ton of buttons and it,s not over- complex, he says. The new technology hasnit completely forgotten about older games though. The Wii includes an online shopping channel where owners can purchase older video games that range from the era of the NES to the N64. The Internet has become a haven for the older games as well. There are multiple sites where you can play those original NES games, as well as some ofthe arcade classics such as Pac-Man and Pole Position. For systems such as Super Nintendo, there are sites where you can download emula- tor software, which acts as the actual system and is saved on your hard drive. Older video games still have an effect on characters and storylines of newer video games as well. Whether it's a character or a remake of a classic game, older video games tend to influence this cutting-edge era ofgames. The storylines help the continuity from past to pres- ent as well. Pesnell, the owner of Game Guy, says he,s seen people come in to the store to buy the original Metal Gear games so they can understand how the story has pro- gressed up to the point ofthe most recent game. Gan the older video games keep up their popularity in the current environment? Nutt says he sees a growing interest in the older systems. They,re actually growing in popularity, ,' Nutt says. Older games are now getting that classic reputation that old films and books earn after a period of time. TheyIre like any other medium like movies or music. just because somethings older doesn't mean it's irrel- evant, Noh says. Indeed, older video games have settled in to their role and gotten a steady stream of attention. That Super Nintendo I mentioned actually belongs to my roommate. I will have to carry my regret for selling mine. It was my initiation into the world of video gaming, a part of my history, and I let it go. Things from our past always hold that sense ofnostalgia, whether it,s a book we read as a kid or a toy we played with. What's great about the video games is they don,t lose any of their effect as they get older. The games are still fun today too, says Bowman. Video games have become such a part of pop culture that it is a testament to the mass appeal theylve gained during the past 25 years. The focus of games now is to push the envelope in terms of reality, and it creates some great entertainment, but don't forget how it all began.