In everything there is always a beginning, a new frontier, an unmet challenge waiting to be conquered.  Over the past couple of weeks Valkryie and I have been getting ready for this Beatdown Charity event in Seattle Washington.  We were there to play against the 32 contestants that donated and signed up to win prizes in a Free for All tourney on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. After the competition was over with, the top 2 players of the tourney would play against Valkryie and I in doubles matches in team death match on Terminal, domination on Highrise, and another of their choosing; the winner determined by best of 3 matches. 

Now the kicker was, I have never played in front of a crowd before, I have always played in the comfort of my own home. Being Fidget you can guess how I felt before this event- yep, extremely nervous. When I was a kid I was always was scared to be in front of large crowds, on stage, and on camera in general.  However, as I grew up I began to overcome that feeling of diving into something that you are extremely scared to do and just facing it - it has become the rush that I seem to thrive in now. I remember Valkrie and I in our hotel room before the event; I was being all nervous and shakey, so she sat me down on the bed and told me to relax, close my eyes, and just visualize playing Call of Duty the way we trained and having everything just go perfectly. So I did just that! I was still nervous but I knew what I needed to do.

When we arrived at the event, we went to meet our competition and came to find out that a girl made it to the final round of Free for All. I was stoked to see a girl dominate at Free for All and that she did. She did great, too bad Valkyrie and I had to beat a fellow girl gamer but you got to do what you got to do. All it took was a deep breath and I was zoned in… and we dominated!

That wasn’t the end of ‘a first time for everything’ though, I got a little bonus at the airport on the way home.  I was confused with my seat arrangement considering I usually am pretty good at navigating what zone is what in flights; but on this ticket I didn’t get a zone number. I went up to the gate attendant and asked while the zones where being called, “what zone am I in?” He said, “Mam, you are in first class”. Now I have never been in first class before, so I wasn’t sure whether to jump up for joy and ask someone to take a picture while I walk through on the red carpet lane or to just act all casual. So I stuck with the casual since I had just realized I was in first class anyway and didn’t have time to prepare the proper victory dance.

Once I found my seat, you can only imagine how I was; yep, I was searching for little compartments and pushing buttons like a kid. Now I noticed a few differences between first class and coach, but mostly people in first class are really uptight and smug.  Less constrained seating on airlines = more restrictive personalities, I can only imagine what would happen if they put in some big comfy recliners and sofas.  I really wanted to go around and cheer everyone up by giving them high fives but I didn’t want to be labeled “the crazy person” or anything.  Luckily I had a patient lady named Georgia sitting next to me that was so entertained of the fact that I was new to this whole experience that she took the time to explain where everything was and how everything worked. So lets just say I’m a pro now in first class and definitely took advantage of it.

Despite feeling like a newbie throughout the weekend, I took all the terrifying and exciting new experiences in stride.  If all this has happened within the first year of being a Frag Doll, who knows what awesome things lie in wait through the next 10 months!