A Passion of Magic (the TCG)

So, I didn't draw a bird even though today was Draw a Bird Day. However, I would like to write about Trading Cards for Grown-Ups Day.... and by that I mean, I'm going to write about my best friend Kyle. Let's go!


Kyle and I met in college since I lived on one of the honors floors that a 50/50 split between students in IT (math/science nerds) and CLA (liberal arts with a lot of majors represented), and Kyle was one of the people that didn't live on the floor, but was there often enough to be adopted into the community. We didn't start hanging out that much until sophomore year when we did actually live on the same floor and had a crush on the same girl and then quickly realized that the other person was awesome and played a lot of Guitar Hero and Lego games. That was incredibly brief, but junior and senior year, Kyle and I were both CAs (RAs) in the same building which is how this relates to today's holiday.

Kyle was (and still is to an extent) into Magic: The Gathering, which is a trading card game where you have a deck based around different elemental forces and summon creatures, artifacts, etc, to defeat the other player. The card game has been around for 20+ years now and the creators of the game have found a system that really works for them - things may get more complicated, but you could conceivably combine cards from 1993 & 2013 without major problems*. So, Kyle had a large wealth of knowledge when it came to cards and how a card's mechanics could relate to the personality of the character/creature/item that the card was portraying.

* I mean, that's my understanding. I'm not that familiar with the game myself, although I have learned a couple of times. 

During freshman and sophomore years, Kyle created "Magic cards" based on his experiences in college each year. This included friends he made, inside jokes within our social circle, and events that happened on campus. Sticking with the Magic system, he made sure that the cards he thought up of had character and fit the personalities of the people, for example. One year, my card was a woodland creature because I played a northern Minnesotan lumberjack on a dating game skit thing that we did for fun. Okay, now skip back ahead to junior/senior years.

As an RA, one of our responsibilities was creating door decs for each resident that were unique and fun. Since Kyle had already made dozens of Magic cards for personal friends, it was pretty obvious that he could make Magic card-themed door decs for his residents. If I remember correctly, he did wait until spring semester each year so that he knew each resident's personality and would make each card fit the person. The residents had a blast seeing what creature they were turned into and it further strengthened the laid-back fun relationship Kyle had with his residents.

This memory sticks with me because Magic was this huge hobby that Kyle really enjoyed and he found a way to have it fit perfectly with his role as an RA. The residents could tell he had lots of fun making up new cards and I'm sure he connected with some people because of the interest. There's definitely value to bringing those personal interests and hobbies into a position like student affairs because it shows the students that you're human and not some automaton stuck in your professional role. Personally, I've had a few moments like that this year, but I think I could do more as well, particularly with the RA staff across campus. As people have told me countless times, it's a learning process, but everyone has to make a position like this your own.

Hooray story time! So yeah, that was my nod to Trading Cards for Grown-Ups Day. I haven't done too much with trading card games after my foray into Pokemon in high school, but it's still a cool system. To give you a heads-up, tomorrow is National Cherish an Antique Day.

DFTBA