\n\n"}\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOne of my (ahem) defining characteristics as an adult is that I love D&D.
It\u2019s not just that I grew up on a cold, rainy Kentucky farm, where Dungeons and Dragons was a staple of family life and the state religion, or that my father used to take a lifelong vow of celibacy (he was a Scientologist) and spent many long hours reading and playing D&D with me. It\u2019s not even that I was taught that D&D was \u201creal life, with the heroes and villains swapped\u201d when I was a kid, which is partly true.
It\u2019s that once I stopped playing D&D and became more adult, my interest in playing D&D returned. Even though I don\u2019t have any specific imaginary friends who \u201cserve as role models\u201d (like my imaginary friends did for me when I was younger), D&D\u2019s iconography appeals to me in a way that it didn\u2019t when I was a kid, and this has led to some fond memories of the past, some bad memories of the future, and some \u201cwhat if I\u2019m an idiot and he\u2019s right and I\u2019m an idiot\u201d thoughts in-between.
It\u2019s a complicated phenomenon.
Damn, Frank\u2019s gettin\u2019 Relatable again. Except for that second paragraph, not sure what\u2019s up with that.
Of course there are different ways of interpreting things. My main goal here is to identify one specific dynamic that I see (and dislike) in my own life. I\u2019m not sure that having a crush on my imaginary friend is identical to having a crush on someone in real life, but it seems like the closest thing.