Best friends have the ability of bringing out the best and the worst in us. Sometimes they encourage us to change our ways, clean up our act and really live up to our potential. Other times they expose us to new addictive habits, or facilitate our shopping sprees or bed-hopping binges, but we never think less of them for it. Fortunately for me, the only thing one of my best friends has recently introduced me to is crossword puzzles.
One sunny afternoon on the quad a couple of friends and I soaked up what we thought would be some of the last rays of summer sunshine and spread ourselves haphazardly on the grass. When the thrill of people watching (read: outfit-judging and sexuality-guessing) began to lose its luster, one of my friends brought out a crossword she apparently keeps in her bag in case of a boredom emergency, like a stash of hard candies that grandmas and diabetics always keep on hand.
Being more of a Jumble man myself, I never really considered the satisfaction and complete distraction that can result from losing yourself in a geometric puzzle that demands both your vocabulary and reasoning skills, but my friend showed me the light. Before long I was hooked. Now I grab the Style section before I leave the building, making sure I have a current puzzle on hand in case I am forced to wait for any period of time.
I knew that I had discovered a new educational way to fill my various commutes and downtime, but what I didn't expect was how doing crossword puzzles would also begin to reorganize my thinking. All of a sudden I knew the capital of Liberia and greetings in several different languages. Once you have solved a clue, your mind does not easily let it slip away. But it has also adjusted my thinking in other ways.
As I approach each new puzzle I run down each list of across and down clues to fill in the ones I am absolutely sure of. Then begins the tedious process of racking your brain for a four letter word of a concept you have only heard expressed as a sentence, filling in your best guess just to finish and sometimes leaving it blank altogether. The more puzzles I do, the more I realize that I approach my life in the same way. Each week I have my set schedule that fills in exactly what I know I'll be doing. Then as each proposal for nights out, parties, movies and proposed dates comes filtering in, I begin the process of trying to make as many fit as possible.
It is easy to fill in the most desirable ones. The obvious nights out with best friends, the party you've been waiting weeks to attend and sometimes finally getting to meet up with your crush. Though my typical puzzle slots homework into Wednesday night, last week a proposed reunion with good friends from high school seemed an obvious exception.
I had no idea how big the exception would be. I had sworn off shots of tequila freshman year, but the Patron went down easy, and the few beers, shots and mixed drinks that followed found little resistance. Though work hovered early the next morning, I knew this puzzle was already filled with wrong answers so one more wouldn't matter. I invited my ex, who had been trying to see me for a few weeks, over for the night. By the next morning it was an answer I'd have been willing to erase, realizing how poorly he answered any clue to my future.
Thursday was simpler, choosing friends over classes, and Friday no right answers seemed to appear, but Saturday was different - it was well planned and fit nicely and my friends and I enjoyed a night that suited all of our tastes. Sometimes it seems impossible to make everything fit, and usually it's impossible to please everyone. But when you have one corner filled correctly, sometimes the rest of the puzzle doesn't seem so important.
We all have games or methods for unwinding, but often the way we unwind is just another example of how we live our life. The music that lets us escape our stress is also the rhythm of our soul. Our favorite movies and television shows mirror the way we want our life to play out. So get in lost in your down time, whatever it may be, because chances are this will structure the way you approach life and love, so it won't be time wasted at all. Even when we fill in the wrong answers or leave some parts of our life purposely blank, maybe tomorrow the puzzle will be easier.
