I learned a lot of things at college.

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.

But in my free time, I learned one other valuable lesson. I learned the importance of strategy in the game of Yahtzee.

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.

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.

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.

Instead of regretting my prior inaction, I decided to call on my past training to benefit my daughter.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.