Today I got to try an escape room. It's something that's fascinated me for a while but never had the chance or oppurtunity to try one. Well I got a message last week where my friend invited me to come along and join their group. She had gone with a group from work and wanted to go with friends. I didn't really know what to expect, I though the game would be pretty easy at first but once we got locked in I sort of lost my bearings a bit. People were going out and solving problems and I sort of felt a little out of place, not sure if I should jump in and try and help or would me joining in just be too much of a crowd.

The game was in a creepy dark room you had to use flashlights to navigate in. I liked the creepy music and the ambience of the place, almost to the point where I was enjoying wathcing my friends solve the puzzle so I could admire the fixtures of the room. One detail I really liked was once you opened one lock it reveiled a miniture model of the room we were in and the dreamlike quality of that detail was really cool and creepy. I also like that there was a whole secret room that got unlocked later in the game. We did need to use some clues but I expected as much.

aMazed escape room

I felt a bit useless to be honest. The game really showed me how my teamwork skills have really taken a hit. I've been a fairly cautious person for a long time and don't really like to say anything unless I'm very sure. Of course this means that I'm less likely to be wrong but it also makes me quiet and complacent. I sort of fell into an observer role, trying to find a smaller puzzle I could solve myself. I've noticed that myself over the past few years; I like to be given or find a puzzle or problem and go be myself and solve it in solitude. To each their own, I suppose, but it really shows how inward I have retreated from other people. To be given an oppurtunity to be in a new situation and see how I reacted to a new environment was a real wake-up call, I hope I could use these insights to improve on not only how I work in groups but also how I should maybe not always be reacting but maybe be the one who initiates things, that makes things happen. Initiating things is a scary thing in it's own way, since you inevitably have to take responsibility if things go wrong, you can't blame circumstances as much anymore... It's funny, in that escape room I had this weird idea of taking all the candles in the room and putting them in a circle based on an obscure clue. I took action, only for it to be completely wrong. But I took action nonetheless.