Numa Numa

Posted on May 31, 2015October 15, 2020 by Matt Christensen

https://youtu.be/KmtzQCSh6xk

This. Honestly. It brings me back to December 2006. It’s why I joined the Peace Corps.

World of Warcraft had just come out with it’s first expansion pack: The Burning Crusade. The game allowed players to create an avatar character that they could use to travel throughout the untamed lands of Azeroth (lol I know) fighting devious cults and rambling behemoths. The land was inhabited by thousands of other users and was filled with hundreds of quests steeped in history. It was the ultimate adventure and for me it was all engrossing. I would spend hours patrolling the perimeter of Loch Modan hunting murlocs and weeks leveling up my dwarf warrior Glenn. Whole summers were swallowed up by the virtual call to adventure. It was high fantasy and it was real.

On a typical day I sat in my parents’ basement (much like I am now) playing on my computer through dinnertime (like right now). The only breaks I took were to watch a shiny new thing called YouTube. Let’s appreciate what that is for a second. Somebody created a website, posted a video of a dude dancing and BAM… the first quarter of the twenty-first century is written in viral videos. Just amazing.

Now, I am too lazy to look up and give due credit to the band in the YouTube video above, but they really knew how to make him move. I enjoyed virtually being around someone who was so obviously energetic and passionate. Even if just for a snippet and even if it was stupid. He was on fire and he didn’t care what anybody thought. As a freshly minted, acne scarred teenager this had a big impression on me.

I could feel my own fire kindling. I knew next that I had to join the Peace Corps.

Okay okay. No I didn’t. World of Warcraft, my first liaison amoureuse, did spark a call to explore the world and the people of YouTube did provide the dry wood. But there are many other indirect reasons leading to my decision. I always loved to read, the Lord of the Rings movies had quite the impression on me, both of my parents were teachers and avid storytellers while I grew up, etc. Furthermore, I have worked for some great organizations such as Rainbow Trail and Urban Peak, which have both ingrained in me a strong desire to serve humanity and to create community. Not to mention to explore.

But, when it comes to a slow awakening, World of Warcraft and YouTube put the metaphorical cake in the metaphorical oven. The mythologist Joseph Campbell would say they were the second step in my coming of age, so to speak. They were the call to adventure. It wasn’t until recently, nearly a decade later, that I made the connection.

The reason I loved World of Warcraft so much is because I was a part of the story. I was the fabric being woven into the land to create a new lore, a new history. My actions mattered. While living out my collegiate summers as a camp counselor in Colorado I realized that my desire to see the world was actually an extension of my desire to tell stories. It felt good to stand in front of people and share something that was saturated in meaning.

Take Mary Shelly’s epic masterpiece Frankenstein. One particularly windy and thunderous evening I read an excerpt to a crowd underneath a barraged pavilion. Two of my buddies interpreted the mechanical animation of young Frankenstein’s monster by dancing while I barreled out “It’s aliiiiive” to the night. Thunder rolled at the height of the passage and, like King Leonidas considering the threat of Xerxes, I knew I was stuck. It’s one of my favorite camp moments.

I have been trying to accumulate stories ever since. In one sense, Peace Corps is that for me.

In China I will be teaching English and immersing myself in a mystical, imbedded culture. I will be an ambassador for the United States. I will be a professional attempting to gift a language to young people and to inspire communication between our countries. All so that, dare I say it, we can welcome a new dawn to a World of Peacecraft…