Reasons Why I Love My Job #16

by Crazy Ivan

I think the most rewarding part of being a Myachi Master certainly has to center around all the awesome kids that we meet.  Some of them pop in and out and you only get to see them for a few days and others remain part of the movement for years.  You get to know these guys and gals and in some instances you even get to grow up with them.  In the most extreme cases, you even get to hire them at some point.

I was really reflecting on this today at the HQ.  Animal and I are hanging out today and we had a group of 3 kids show up, all about 8 years old.  They were really new to the game.  In fact, all 3 had been playing Myachi for less than 48 hours, having only learned of the game Friday night at their cub scout meeting.

Kid Myach rocked out the cub scout event on Friday night.  He said there were at least 70 kids there and about 50 of them already knew the game and had skills.  More than half had visited the HQ before.  But there were at least a few who were seeing it for the first time.  Amongst those were a set of twins that became instant maniacs.

I met one of them yesterday when he came in to pick up another Myachi.  He already had some pretty impressive skills.  He had full control of his Cold Fusion, he had a solid Under the Leg, a solid Trampoline 360 combo, he had a Faceplant and a Neo and within a few minutes of hanging out I'd taught him the Flying Fish and the Slingshot.

Not surprisingly, I saw him again today.  This time he brought his twin brother and his best friend.  He showed off all the skills that he picked up overnight and I taught him a few new ones.  I got his boys up to speed as well and as I'm doing that, a couple of more veteran Maniacs show up.

These guys were a couple of years older and were far more advanced in skills.  They also have one of the most enviable collections in the game so they had a blast showing off their tricks and rares to a few guys new to the game.  We had a contest and one of the newbs won in an epic golf tournament.  He picked up a spectacular jammer (the Suffolk Downs) as a prize.

The vets needed a Suffolk Downs so they went to work brokering a trade for it.  Of course, since the kid who'd just won was pretty new to the game, Animal was watching over their shoulders to make sure they didn't rip him off.  Quite to the contrary, they kind of ripped themselves off and traded a 1.0 Purple Haze for it.

Afterwards they all started working some tandem tricks.  You know, one guy throws, the other guy catches.  This can be fun when you start throwing in crazy variations (for example, I toss under my leg, you catch under yours) so this turned into a pretty huge game.

And that's about the time that I said to myself (as I often do), "I love my job."

One of the greatest things about Myachi (if not the greatest thing) is that Myachi builds friendships.  We're talking about 5 kids who had never met one another before this morning.  By the time everybody left they were exchanging email addresses and planning out which day they would meet up here again.

It's so cool to see that.  Of all the great benefits to Myachi, I think the social one is the most important.  Because the basics are so easy to learn a person who has played for a day and a half can step right in and have fun playing with somebody who has been at it for a year and a half.

We see this at the stores and at the schools all the time.  I can't tell you how many mothers have marvelled at this ability of Myachi.  They'll see their normally shy son or daughter standing in the Myachigon and teaching the game to complete strangers while teaching new tricks to Maniacs they've never met before.

It's hard to say what I like most about my job but if I were forced to choose one thing, I think this would be it.  There are few things more rewarding than having a hand in a new friendship.  Especially so when you've seen so many of these friendships last for so long.  One of my best friends is a kid I met online through Myachi.  He's not a kid anymore, actually, but he was when we first met.  Well, we've never met actually, but we've talked online so often that I feel like we have.

This is why we say STWAKOJ instead or KOJASTW.  First of all, the latter one would be all but impossible to pronounce.  But second and perhaps even more important is the fact that we all recognize that spreading the word comes first.  It's extremely rewarding to learn a new trick, but that feeling pales in comparison to the excitement I feel when I teach someone else a new trick.