I believe that the game night held at Rose was a great idea to take a break from the end-of-semester atmosphere. It provided a space where some oldies but goodies could be played and brought back up again. I have not played Chinese checkers in a very long time and I was able to play and introduce it to a friend who had never played it before. As someone that grew up with large family game nights that included aunts, uncles and cousins, I have become competitive even in the smallest and less extreme board games, such as Chinese checkers. This was a great break and a way to have fun while also being reminiscent of the game nights that I’ve had in the past. Chinese checkers is one of the games that I have not even thought about for the longest time, and it was great having the opportunity to play it again.

That night was game night

many many games were in sight

however, we chose to play scrabble

darn, that game is a hassle

I was playing, but I was wishing I was far away

maybe in a castle, maybe somewhere astray

im really not a poet

so I will stop here

thank you for reading my terrible attempt

I hope you are content.

Anyways, game night was a nice get away. I met a few rose scholars and we played a game of scrabble. It was my first time playing that (even thought its such a popular game I know). Hopefully, Ill be able to set more time aside on a weekly basis to just relax and play games with my friends and peers. It was something new that I enjoyed!

So, if you know me you know homie loves a good card game. So when Game Night was brought up I was ready, but there were no card games and I was forced to play scrabble. Scrabble is a weird game, honestly who was like you know whats fun, words. Anyways despite this bland casserole of a game I was ready to win. I was playing against Hameedah, my favorite frienemy and I was destined to win. But alasI forgot that I cannot spell and that most of the words I use are AAVE. Then this brought me to the realization that this game should have a AAVE version. Because in this day and age everyone speaks AAVE (despite the fact that they shouldn’t considering it was created for black people), I know that this version would revitalize the Scrabble industry. AAVE Scrabble would hit. But that will never get made because companies never think of their black consumers. Also I just know the commercials and billboards for this would be beyond racist.

This week, I participated in Game Night. I played Scrabble with two other Rose Scholars. I had seen them at other Rose Scholar events previously, but I never interacted with them. They had never played Scrabble, so I explained the rules to them. Game Night was a really nice little break from my week that’s regularly filled with problem sets and studying. It was also a nice opportunity to interact with people outside of engineering, more specifically, people in Rose. Although I go to Rose Scholar events, most of the events I go to have been individual activities like Sip and Paint. I also haven’t played board games in a really long time, so it was nice to relax and take the time to do something I haven’t had the time/ people to do it with in a while.

I played “In a Pickle” with Lory. I liked getting to relax and play a pretty easy game. It probably would have been more fun with more people, but I think we both still had fun. The game is about different sized objects, but it gets a little harder with abstract cards, like for a dream being able to fit inside a brain or a song being able to fit inside a piano. I was thinking about the strategy of the game, and I think you want to get rid of as many of your small cards early in the round so that you can use your large cards to try to win at the end. Then, since you’ve gotten rid of your small cards, you can draw more cards for the next round and hopefully draw something really big like “solar system” or “galaxy.” I don’t think there’s much more to the strategy than that. There might be exceptions where you might want to save a really small card since it can fit inside of almost anything, but other than that, I think the game is pretty simple. Maybe people who have played it before can correct me in the comments if I’m missing something.

Game night was a welcome break from one of the most stressful academic weeks at Cornell. Everything is hectic after Thanksgiving, and students are rushing to complete major projects before finals. It was nice to come to the Rose common room for a bit of fun, even if I couldn’t stay long. The room was full of people casually studying and others quietly enjoying everything from scrabble to solitaire. At a time when everything else feels like it’s out of our control, it is lovely to be able to come together for a moment of relaxation.

It feels like a breath of fresh air. I greatly enjoyed going through a series of playing card games with friends in between writing term papers. There is a sense of solidarity as we all look around the room at each other’s stacks of worksheets, color-coded notes, and laptops precariously balanced over boxes of pictionary. The mood is cheerful, but subdued. There is something to be said for a quiet evening in with new friends!