Online Gaming

I started playing online games when they first came into existence. It gave me an incentive to learn how to type and I had a way to spend my free time with friends in my ward. I was on the cross country team, and I played the viola in the orchestra. However, my grades were not as they should be and only improved when I stopped playing video games all together.  Online games are especially difficult to stop because there isn't a way to pause the game.  The games I played did allow a pause, but no one wanted to wait so they would resume the game before I was ready. This caused conflict between me and my mother. She would want me to do a chore, and I didn't want to because I was in the middle of a game. When most of my gaming friends moved, I decided to focus on school. No one ridiculed me during the time I wasn't playing video games, but it was difficult finding a social life.