I don’t need to tell you that there are a lot of choices about what to do with your ‘free’ time. I also don’t need to tell you that to many of us, ‘free time’ is that time between when you lay your weary head on the pillow and you wake up to a buzzing alarm clock.
 

For some of us, simming is an escape…something we do to get away from our real lives. For some of us, it’s a pastime…a form of entertainment ranking right down there on list of priorities with playing a video game, reading a magazine or shooting pool. But for some of us, me included, it’s a little bit more meaningful than that…allow me to explain.


I’ll start by saying that simming has its benefits. For those of us in Command, it’s a forum in which we can learn how to manage people…diverse people, of all ages. It’s a safe environment too…one in which a mistake may cost us a bruised ego or an angry player, but not hundreds or thousands of dollars, or our job. It allows us to learn how to manage conflicts…albeit petty conflicts in the grand scheme of life, but conflicts nonetheless.


For those of us not in command, we learn social moors, how to get along with others, how to cooperate to produce a storyline that is enjoyable for all. It forces us to reason through problems logically, and develop our critical thinking skills. It exposes us to science, to medicine, and to tactics. Those of us who take our writing seriously like to do a little research so that we know what we’re talking about. If I need to write about an RNA transfer, I like to know what, exactly, RNA is (and I know I’m not alone out there).


In addition, we learn to exercise and develop our creativity. Believe it or not, not everyone finds it easy to be creative. Sometimes the difficulty in coming up with a new plotline is insurmountable…but we usually push through and in this manner, we exercise those muscles behind the creative process. That way, when we need them later, say in order to think of a good subject for our term paper or an imaginative legal defense, we don’t have quite as hard a time as a non-simmer might.
 

Then, of course, there is the most obvious advantage gained from simming: We learn to write better. I don’t need to tell most of you that writing is one of the most critical skills we learn both in high school and in college. I don’t need to tell you that the ability to write well is something of paramount importance not only in academia, but in life. It is what makes a good student great, a good lawyer excellent, and a mediocre professor an international bestseller. What Simming does for you, my fellow trekkies, is sharpen and refine your ability to write. It gives you much needed practice at composition, at spelling, at grammar, at expression. You can take the skills you learn in composing the plotline for a post and apply it directly to composing an academic paper…there is little difference in the type of thought required.


I realize this writing tip has been a little longer than normal, but it has not all been for naught (a little play on words there for you…call it a demonstration). Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is actually a point to my laying out the benefits of simming. I mentioned at the beginning that we all have a choice about what to do with our free time…and with my free time, I choose to simm. The benefits are there. I get something more than pure entertainment from this…and that to me makes it worthwhile.


It is important…important to me to do my best to provide this environment for people to simm in, to learn how to write better, to learn about scientific concepts, to exercise their creativity. It is something that I enjoy, and something I feel is important, beyond other forms of entertainment. It’s not ‘building homes for Habitat for Humanity’ important, but depending on what you get out of this, it’s more important than spending six hours playing video games (ducks the incoming video game controllers from angry gamers). Well, you get my point.


And that, my fellow trekkies, is my point. So, think about what you get out of this simm. Think about the benefits that you reap from your efforts. Think about the others that benefit from your contributions. Think about that little community of writers you’ve come to think of as friends. Think about the plethora of neat people you meet through writing. It’s invigorating if you ask me, and I am thrilled to be a part of it. I hope you are too.


Thanks,
Russ