Thursday night before your final exams. You sit at home, rummaging through your books and notes; struggling to cram all the information into your mind. Suddenly, your eye catches your TV screen, and you notice the controller resting peacefully at the TV's side, begging to be fondled.

Your palms sweat. The book in your hand seems to fade away as your mind focuses in on how great of a time you could be having right now instead of studying. Your eyes shift back and forth from your books to the TV.

So what is it? Your future, or your entertainment?

I look at video games as a form of media. They deliver information, they can be fairly biased; video games deliver a little bit of the world to us each day in an entertaining way.

And yet, I find myself drawn to video games more often than the TV or the radio. Why is this?

I believe partly because I can be a part of video games. If I'm watching TV, I'm watching someone else do something – if I'm playing video games, I'm watching myself do something.

Yet, by telling myself that video games are merely media, I can break away more easily. I can study for more important things and not be distracted – most of the time.

I find that my distant future in school is far more vital to my lifestyle than my immediate future in a video game. I may have fun bashing up some zombies, but I wouldn't be able to continue bashing up said zombies without a job or some sort of income.

However, I still recognize the importance of video games. They're an escape away from the stress of education, the stress of life. They provide me with hours of relaxation.

But the key to this relaxation is to limit it. When I'm doing my school work, I'm doing my school work. No games, no nothing.

It's taken me a while to realize the value in this, however. I used to play games for hours on end with no stop – who needed books when I could have non-stop, action packed fun?

And yet, the more I played, the more I became depressed, and the more I hated to do school work.
Looking directly into your immediate future, whether that future be of games or TV or whatever, will ultimately result in zero happiness.

But when you look at the big picture, with video games most definitely included in that future, you'll start to see the beauty of life, and in turn, the beauty of video games as means of a timely escape.