Hear me out, I know that puzzles may not be for everyone, I certainly didn’t think they’d be for me, but quarantine changes a person. When I was younger, I used to sit with my younger brother at the kitchen table and work on Thomas the Tank Engine puzzles and holiday-themed puzzles for what felt like hours. As I got older, the kid-friendly puzzles became too easy, but the 1,000 piece puzzles were too detailed and overwhelming for me, and I found myself slowly drifting away from them. There have been plenty of opportunities for me to get back into this pastime, but I always found some excuse not to sit down and push through the frustration that can come from hunting through pieces that often look exactly the same, trying to find even the slightest detail that may clue me in to where each piece fits. That is, until my roommate opened the care package that her aunt sent her.
My roommate and I share a love of Broadway musicals, so when we opened the box to find a 1,000-piece puzzle of the most memorable Broadway musicals from the past five years, we were both excited, yet unsure, of whether or not we were up for the challenge. The puzzle sat in my roommate’s room for about three weeks while we struggled through online classes and passed the time in self-inflicted isolation from the rising COVID-19 cases in the East Lansing area until finally, we hit our breaking point. Hulu and Netflix weren’t cutting it anymore, and neither was mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, or attempting to read any kind of book. Feeling like we had nothing to lose, we dumped out the puzzle on her floor, sorted the pieces so that they were all facing right-side up, and got to work.
Here is what I noticed as we worked:
- Time flew by. . .
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At first, I expected to get frustrated and walk away after an hour of poring over each piece, however, three hours went by before we even looked at a clock.
- I found myself able to focus better on my homework after we walked away for the night. . .
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While the puzzle demanded a lot of focus and attention to detail, I didn’t find myself drained or overwhelmed. I felt like I was taking part in a fun, low-stakes challenge, and when I went to complete an assignment afterward, my brain was already in the mindset to get to work and be productive.
- I was having fun. . .
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With the help of a great playlist, and working on the puzzle with my roommate, who is also one of my best friends, I genuinely had a lot of fun! We’d laugh when we failed miserably at trying to fit certain pieces together, and yelled in frustration when we were staring at what felt like a sea of pieces that were all the same color, yet wouldn’t fit together. Any feelings of frustration didn’t make us want to quit but instead challenged us to try new approaches and crack new jokes.
- I felt accomplished. . .
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We haven’t been able to finish the puzzle yet, but being able to sit back and look at how much we have accomplished in a relatively short amount of time felt amazing. Not only did I feel great about myself for being able to accomplish something that I originally thought was going to be too challenging for me, I felt the boost in my self-esteem carry over to other aspects of my life. Online school has been a challenge in every sense of the word, and unfortunately, it has at times really affected my self-esteem. Where I was previously spiraling into feeling disorganized, unintelligent, and generally unable to do anything, finding success in solving this puzzle reminded me that I am capable, intelligent, and need to have more patience with myself.
No one was more surprised than me when I reflected on this experience and found myself jumping at the next chance to solve another puzzle. But this was exactly what I needed. I have spent so much of quarantine going through cycles of deep depression, and then coping by numbing myself with excessive sleep, buying things that I don’t need, and staring at different screens for hours on end. The chance to do something just for me that made me feel awake felt like a shock to my system. From this, I feel a small bit of hope that if I can rediscover joy in solving a puzzle, then I can keep trying to lift myself up by discovering or rediscovering more challenges or old pastimes that can continue to bring me joy.
I know that some of you may feel like you have exhausted every pastime and that any form of extra challenge right now is the opposite of self-care, but I strongly recommend finding a simple puzzle and saving it for a brain break, a rainy day, or a time when you need to be reminded that you are capable of using your brain in more ways than producing school work and worrying about the past, present, or future.