I learned a lot of things at college.<\/p>\n
My academic program prepared me for a career as a writer. Playing a varsity sport provided many lessons about hard work and dedication. My social and leadership activities helped me learn how to work effectively with many different kinds of people.<\/p>\n
But in my free time, I learned one other valuable lesson. I learned the importance of strategy in the game of Yahtzee.<\/p>\n
For a while, I thought this skill would go to waste. I thought all those hours of rolling the dice and trying to figure out the best possible play would be all for nothing.<\/p>\n
Enter Santa Claus. The jolly old guy brought us a new Yahtzee game as a family gift for Christmas. I saw a great opportunity in front of me.<\/p>\n
I don’t know why I needed a new game to try and teach Bridget all that I knew. We have dice and scoresheets somewhere in the house, but just never brought them out.<\/p>\n
Instead of regretting my prior inaction, I decided to call on my past training to benefit my daughter.<\/p>\n
When we first sat down to play as a family, Bridget didn’t really know what to do. We explained each of the different options available to her, then let her try and figure out some things on her own.<\/p>\n
After a few rounds, I could see things click in her head. That’s when I started to get misty for my college Yahtzee days.<\/p>\n
Back then, we didn’t have video games like kids do today. One guy got an old-school Nintendo for Christmas my junior year, but we didn’t get a ton of time to play with it. He graduated that year so we had to figure out our own fun during my senior year.<\/p>\n
I don’t know how we settled on Yahtzee. All I remember is quickly figuring out that I needed to devise proper strategy in order to beat my friends. Then there was the thrill of getting a Yahtzee.<\/p>\n
We lived in a fraternity house and saw a unique opportunity. When someone would get a Yahtzee, they would have to go to the most public place in the house and yell “Yahtzee!” as loud as they could. Even if we happened to be playing at 3 a.m. Not everyone appreciated our pursuit of Yahtzee glory.<\/p>\n
I have held those lessons deep inside my brain for many years. Whenever I find a Yahtzee knock-off game on a video game machine at a bar or restaurant, I sit down and try my luck. For some reason, I never thought I’d get to share my knowledge at home.<\/p>\n
Now, a whole new world has opened up to me. I can teach Bridget the right way to use her Chance and the best combinations to shoot for with your Three of a Kind. I can even teach her the right way to announce to the world that you have rolled a Yahtzee.<\/p>\n
I don’t think we’ll be trying the 3 a.m. yell anytime soon. Something tells me Maria won’t find that as funny as I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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