Yesterday, I was trying to think about when/where/how/why I first learned about the concept of "college." And I realized I have a board game to thank for that.

All I ever needed to know about life, really, I’ve learned from board games.

For example, when I was 3, I played Chutes and Ladders for the first time. A simple game, but a highly instructive one. From this, I began the importance of applying simple reasoning skills to every day situations.

Ultimately, I learned expedience doesn’t always lead you down the road to success. What seems like the most direct chute doesn’t always get you where you want to go. Little steps make the journey.

Around the same time I played Monopoly for the first time, and I learned the basics behind money management, investment, and free market economics. (There wasn’t any Baby Einstein: Exploring Capitalism! at the time. My parents thought Monopoly was an appropriate substitute.) Games like RISK, Stratego, and BATTLESHIP, taught me about foreign policy, geography, imperialism.  Important lessons for early childhood development. Clearly.

I also played the Game of Life for the first time. And I learned if you don’t go to college, you can’t be an accountant, a teacher, or a doctor. Not that you really wanted to be any of those anyway – except for the accountant, because then you got to collect everyone’s taxes. But it was never as cool as being the police officer. Or the rock star.

Yes, the first time I was ever introduced to the concept of college (and its importance) was (believe it or not) not through a ‘90s TV show, but through a ‘60s board game. Okay, well maybe the ‘90s version of it.
Actually, the first time I played the Game of Life wasn’t just the first time I learned this thing called "college" existed; It was the first time I ever became vaguely aware there might be an alternative to becoming a princess, being swept away by a prince, and starring in an animated movie based on your life, which was kind of my post high-school plan until the age of five or so.

Considering the intensity with which I’m currently thinking on this whole college thing, it’s a little odd to think that same "thing" is only given a grand total of ten spaces on the classic LIFE board.

And there isn’t even any mention of the pre-college process on the board. No mention of SATs…ACTs…DMV’s. Researching colleges, researching merit scholarships, estimating your projected financial aid package(s), waiting for acceptance/waitlist/rejection letters. Apparently in the LIFE world, you simply accrue $40,000 in student loans, cram for an exam (and lose a LIFE tile), make the Dean’s List (get the LIFE tile back), and then graduate. And then you become either an accountant, a teacher, or a doctor. And have more plastic kids than you can fit into a plastic Volvo 850 Sedan.

On second thought, I guess it’s not so strange that the whole college process only gets ten spaces on the LIFE board because it really does only constitute four years of your life (or seven, if you’re on the Animal House plan). But it certainly seems strange because finishing college applications, and getting accepted to colleges, and going to college is all that’s on my mind right now.

And, in many ways, I think the outcome of my turn at this whole college thing – or the application part, at least – will be as unexpected as the outcome of a game of LIFE. Except, in the game of LIFE, you get to be the one who spins the wheel on your turn. And once I send those applications out, I no longer have a hand in the game.

Until, of course, the response letters start coming in.

Let’s just hope they’re the type of letters that would earn you a LIFE tile, and not the kind that would make you lose a turn, if you know what I mean.

Hey, the rest of my life depends on it.