After the first week of college, I still had no idea where I was going. I could barely find my way to my dorm, much less to any of my classes. The week of the 14th was filled with nothing but drama and confusion for the weary freshman such as I.
So what better thing to do on the weekend than get locked in a room for an hour solving puzzles and poor air-conditioning until you find a way out or the clock ticks away to your death?
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When Madison, my best friend for years and proud confidant, suggested the idea of going to an escape room with me and a few other mutual friends, I was skeptical to say the least.
So, I thought...why not?
"Great! See you this Saturday at four!"
Yeah. So great.
After the grueling couple of days after her proposal past, which included me sobbing while trekking from East to West Campus within ten minutes each day and losing my AppCard AT LEAST twice, Saturday at four finally came. She, myself and two members of the squad (Evan and Noah, holler at me,) met for ice cream, afterward heading to the Mysterium, an escape room emporium that had just opened right across the street from campus. We were met with a young couple that was to be joining us on this escape venture, and the six of us were thus locked into this room with a projector.
There was this elaborate story behind our escape. Our poor Uncle Ambrose (God rest his soul), had died of unknown causes, and will grant us his inheritance money if we can find a way out of his study room within an hour, cracking down on puzzles of which were his own design.
He then proceeded to taunt us.
"But you'll never quite understand any of them!"
"If you came from the same gene pool as my brother, you're not that well off, are you?"
"Don't make this boring for me, will you?"
Then, suddenly, all of my regrets washed away. Yeah, I wanted that inheritance, but it was definitely out of spite and, at that moment, not just to pay off my tuition. Madison saw my fist clench while watching the recorded will of our decomposing uncle and chuckled at herself.
After obtaining this riveting back-story, we were lead into Ambrose's office, where the door slammed behind us and the timer began. The six of us immediately scrambled around every bookshelf, every locked drawer, any and all boxes we could find, thinking 15 minutes had passed instead of five.
And dude.
The escape room was INCREDIBLE.
It was like being immersed head-first in this entirely different world, a period of time, even, where something like raiding someone's personal office to find keys was legal. Every now and again, while exploring this intricately designed office, we would hear the ominous voice of Ambrose heckling from beyond the grave. Riddles, the occasional trap, lock-picking and bickering back at the pre-recordings of our "uncle."
The escape room mainly involved finding things in places in which are the least expected. Open a door with a chess board, find a nut for a wrench under a globe, etc.
Feeling like we were all scrambling for time, I was worried that, as I was searching every ounce of the room for answers with the rest of the team, we wouldn't make it out on time.
We beat it in almost seventeen minutes.
I can't say how, because that would spoil it and this is something everyone and their best friend's dog should experience. It was the most invigorating feeling high-fiving strangers and embracing people I hadn't seen for up till a year before college started.
Leaving the room, as cheese-filled as it sounds, let me forget the anxiety I had during the first week.
Beating something as strenuous like an escape made me feel like I could accomplish anything, that a small victory was worthy of the satisfaction. As someone who takes everything so harshly, especially after the embarrassment of losing my belongings and my direction throughout the first week, this was cathartic for me. I got gradually more emotional during the escape room trial, yanking off picture frames from the walls and knocking down decorations just to find secret codes.
Again, didn't think we would make it out on time.
The six of us broke the record for the fastest time yet to escape the room. After only seventeen minutes, it felt like we were the most brilliant minds of this great nation.
We felt fantastic.
I felt like a true puzzle-solver.
Actual footage of me finding a solution to a puzzle and sharing it with my colleagues.
The cover photo above is one of the many photos taken of those who successfully escape the room, giving them the opportunity to take pictures with Uncle Ambrose's inheritance of totally real gems and fat stacks of Benjamins. A souvenir to take back to the real world to show to skeptics that you're actually the richest person in the world thanks to your dead uncle.
I'm the one on the far left dabbing.
Of course I am.
