Calvinball: The Nostalgic Game Everyone Should Play by Christopher

Calvinball: The Nostalgic Game Everyone Should Play by Christopher - September 2019 Scholarship Essay

Given the chance, I would create the “Calvinball Club”. Simply, it would be a club where members would go outside and play Calvinball. Calvinball is a zany game created by the fictional six year old Calvin from the comic Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson. The rules are simple because of the fact that there are none, aside from that no two games can end the same way. The only things required are masks for each player and the Calvinball, which is really just any sports ball, like a volley ball or soccer ball. From there, players let their imagination run wild. While the objective of the game is to win, there is no real way to determine what winning is. The game is literally made up as it goes along and the score does not necessarily have to be maintained by a numerical system.

Why pick such a nonsensical ‘sport’ that has no rules to follow or any real objective? Players are expected to just declare random rules on the spot in favor of themselves or to penalize others. It seems there is nothing to gain from this. However, these made up rules from a made up game bring up what a high schooler would need as they begin the transition to college. This game offers an outlet to forget about stress and act a little bit childish after being cooped up in a classroom all day. The last couple of years of high school, especially the last semester of senior year, can be terrifying. Students make their first decisions as an individual that will impact the rest of their lives. They decide then what they want to do with their lives However, during this time there is a lot of uncertainty to go around. Should they go to college? What if the college they go to is not right for them? What if their major is not what they thought it would be? Calvinball, as silly as it sounds, takes away these worries for a little bit of time and lets everyone act like a kid again. “We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.” (Calvin/Waterson) Just for a little while, it lets them remember simpler times where such pressing issues were not yet a worry.

Outside of the stress relieving and nostalgic elements, Calvinball actually has more physical and practical uses as a club. Calvinball works as a medium to produce creativity from players. At a moment’s notice any player can make up any rule. It makes players think and react quickly in order to ‘win’. The best rules come from spontaneous thinking that makes every player involved and engaged. Calvinball also gets people outside again, which can be harder as people get older and busier. Running around outside in a field or climbing trees are actions that are inevitable in this game and it really gets the blood pumping. Physical exercise is often neglected and this is a fun and innovative way to bring it back to people.

In short, I would create a Calvinball club because it is an ingenious game that is one-of-a-kind that any person can pick up and play. Calvinball is a representative of being a kid again and it reminds teenagers, even adults, that it is okay to act naïve from time to time in the sake of having fun. I think more of this attitude should be promoted and by creating this club, this is the perfect way to do so.