Highs, Lows, and a Sense of Self-Worth Affected by a Videogame In Which I Pretend to Play Guitar

Every week at work we have a staff meeting, and most staff meetings begin with something called “Highs and Lows.” We go around the room and everyone says what their high point and low point for the week were. This can be anything: professional or personal, big or small, a death or a TV cancellation, a birth or a successful casserole. Many people don’t put much thought into it, and since staff meetings are always on a Friday many people choose to say week after week that their high is "that it's Friday." Those people frustrate me somewhat, but I understand- sharing feelings isn’t for everyone. I don’t have much of a problem with it though.
“This week my low was last night. I was playing Guitar Hero III, which as you all know I just bought at the beginning of this week and expected to beat within a day or two. This seemed to be going to plan, until I reached the eighth and final mini-set, which some of you weird born-again-Christians in the room might be alarmed to hear is played in Hell. Yeah, there’s a lot of creepy imagery, but appropriate for this week, right? Am I right? HA. Oh Halloween. What a joy. Anyway, I got to this final set, and it was really hard. I mean, I’m pretty fucking awesome at Guitar Hero, but these songs make "Beast and the Harlot" look like "Smoke on the Water," if you catch my drift. I kept failing song after song, until I reached the moment of crisis that is this week’s low. I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, and I thought ‘What am I good at? Why am I here? I underachieved in school, and then after I graduated I underachieved in the jobs that I went after, and I underachieved in my free time which is what led me to be playing this ridiculous game in the frst place, but at least I thought I was really good at it. And now if I can’t even beat "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric fucking Johnson then what good am I? Aren’t I just a big failure, period?’ I tell you, it was a low if ever there was one.
"Well, I took a long walk, which isn’t entirely safe in the fan, but I was feeling reckless, and I resolved to keep trying. And maybe I just needed a break, because I got back to the apartment, opened a new beer and damn if I didn’t beat "Cliffs of Dover," "Number of the Beast," and "One" in less than an hour! And that was my high! Now I only need to beat "Raining Blood," and I’ll unlock the final boss battle, and nobody will ever call me a loser again!”
“Ok,” said my boss who had been checking her watch, “Lauren, how about you?”

Sure enough, the next day I finally beat "Raining Blood," and felt very good about it.
“Hey, I beat Raining Blood!” I told my friend Jon when I went over to watch football.
“Hey, great,” he said, unenthused.
“Hey Amy!” I said to Amy when she came in half an hour later, “I beat Raining Blood!”
“I’m very happy for you,” she said, and smiled as one might smile at a retarded boy who just drew a picture of you.
Later my friends Cara and Allison came over, and I told Cara my good news.
“You know Andrew,” she said, “I feel like our interests are diverging. You’re into all these fake things. You play fake guitar. You have a fake football team. You’re even sort of a fake teacher. Soon we’re not going to have anything in common.”
It was my low for the weekend.