Adventure

 Ikram Samat

Thomas Maltman 

College Writing 

05 September 2024

Out of My Comfort Zone

There have been so many times my friends and I have been bored looking for things to do. We always complained that Minnesota is too boring and there’s never anything to do. Honestly, I think we’re the ones who make it boring because we never want to try new things. An escape room was always an idea someone suggested but we never go through with it. It’s either too far, or too boring. I finally decided to stop complaining and actually try it. 

I did my research to find a good escape room that sounds fun enough to convince my friends to go. Once I did, it didn’t take much to convince them. They didn’t have anything better to do so they agreed. We got inside the room and it was very spooky and old looking. A felt a rush of what smelled like an old abandoned basement. Not to mention the room was very small as well. It almost felt claustrophobic in there, there were so many tables and pieces of furniture. That alone frightened me. The room looked old and rusted, everything was brown and looked like there would be cobwebs on it from the 1920s. I took a minute to scan the room looking for anything that could possibly be a clue, we didn’t expect this to be easy. The worker walked in and explained the rules, then she left and shut the door behind her. That’s when it hit me that we were locked in there until we either escaped, or the time was up. 

The timer was displayed on the TV at the front of the room. Then a video played giving us our first clue. The voice was of an old weary man. It gave the dark and twisted backstory of the escape room. The voice sounded very frightening and sinister, only making the room feel even more hostile. I felt chills down my spine as I awaited the “go ahead” to start. We all had a sense of determination to work together and solve this. The website said it was a 9/10 difficulty so we knew we had a journey ahead of us. I wasn’t feeling too confident that we would get out of this but I was willing to try my best. 

My friend that went with me enjoys this kind of stuff much more than I do. She loves horror films, and things that raise your arm hairs. Me on the other hand, I will stay away from watching horror movies at all costs, it’s the last thing I would ever want to do. You could imagine I was pretty shaken while being in this room. The overwhelming feeling of having to solve extremely difficult problems in only 60 minutes combined with the eerie feeling of the room didn’t sit well with me. I felt as though the pictures on the walls of old deceased people were staring into my eyes, almost as if they were watching me struggle. My mind was paranoid, thinking they had to be clues. I thought everything in that room would be a clue. Every part of me wanted to search everything in sight, but that would’ve just wasted time and I tried to think logically. 

There were a total of four of us scrambling around the room, looking for clue after clue. In order to break out of the room we had to work together, I think we were doing a pretty decent job at that. Everyone was putting together their ideas and it was honestly very helpful. Although sometimes it got very loud in my head. Everyone was talking over one another and their voices were getting muffled up in my mind. That made me even more overwhelmed. My heart rate was definitely very high for not having done any physical activity. You’re probably thinking that I’m getting too stressed out for something that’s meant to be a fun activity. That’s just how I am. I want to do everything perfectly, but I get stressed out easily. I didn’t let that affect me though

The last ten minutes were hectic. We ran around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to escape. There was a puzzle that really stumped us, we couldn’t even figure out what it was or where to start. It barely even seemed like a puzzle. It felt like staring at a blank wall waiting for the answer to magically appear. Giving up hope was not an option, we have come much too far. That took up a lot of time so we were rushing to finish a lot of steps in only ten minutes. I felt a rush of hope and excitement course through my veins as we came so close to the end. My brain was going a million miles per hour as we approached the last step. We completed it with less than two minutes to spare. The look of pure shock on everyone’s faces was so priceless. I would’ve loved pictures of it framed and hung up on my wall. I felt the craziest feeling of relief and accomplishment, I knew everyone else felt it too. 

Escape rooms are a real test for not only your brain, but also your patience. I was not prepared for that and I know for a fact that my friends weren’t either. Situations like this stress me out sometimes, but overall I really enjoyed it. It requires a lot of critical thinking and patience, which I forgot to use quite a bit. Finally coming to the decision to try an escape room is hands down one of the best decisions I have made. It unlocked a new thing to do for my friends and Ihat I actually enjoy.