Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to try out an escape room with a group of friends. It was at an arcade in Ottawa called Funhaven. The theme was ‘the Curse of the Forgotten’ and it was pretty challenging, considering it was meant for children and I am a 21-year-old university student. From these challenges, though, come real-life lessons that can apply to your everyday life.
1. Thinking outside of the box.
Many of us get caught up in our strict schedules, whether it’s a 9-5 workday, a full course load, or promising to complete an overwhelming list of tasks. In an escape room, you are forced to think outside of the norm. With the multiple clues and tasks give to you, it is your job to sort them out in a timely and creative manner. This can be compared to your daily activities. Sometimes you are given tasks or are stuck in a situation that you feel hopeless in. Thinking outside of the box can help you get through your day a little bit faster and it might even get you out of the rut you are stuck in.
2. Playing nicely with others.
This is an obvious one. Doing an escape room with friends can be hard because you are stuck in a small room with them for an hour trying to solve a difficult puzzle. Also, many of the clues required you to have someone else helping you out or another pair completing tasks at the same time that you are. Luckily, my group escaped at the last minute and actually avoided arguing for a full hour (truly a miracle). It can suck to have to work with people you dislike or are incompatible with, but if you try to play to each other’s strengths and participate with others, then it will all work out.
3. Being patient.
Following from the previous lesson, patience is a necessary virtue to complete an escape room as well as general, daily activities. When you are bombarded with multiple clues and confusion, it can be hard to avoid frustration. However, if you take a moment to actually think about what you are doing and work through the problem at hand, the puzzle seems much easier than it would have been otherwise. Funhaven’s escape room reminded me to take it one step at a time and think through things carefully before acting.
4. Not jumping to conclusions.
Many of us are guilty of automatically getting angry or making broad assumptions that end up making us feel worse than before. You literally can’t jump to conclusions in an escape room because many of the hints can be misleading or can distract you from the real goal. This goes for what you do in real life. Don’t let sudden or ambiguous situations let you get emotional, leading you to jump to conclusions. Take the time to investigate and think rationally. It’s easier said than done, but if you can learn to do that, it pays off for the rest of your career/everyday life. Overall, I found Funhaven’s escape room to be a great experience for myself and my friends. It reminded me of a few lessons that we often forget in the face of daily adversity.
Written by Rebecca Rosenberg