Puzzles

Fun fact about me, I really enjoy solving puzzles. They scratch an itch in my brain and I find completing them to be very satisfying. I have spent hours and even days working on puzzles, and while there is a wide range of puzzles that I enjoy working on,  by far my favorite type of puzzles are jigsaw puzzles.

Even as a little kid I enjoyed jigsaw puzzles. I distinctly remember when I was in preschool, that my older sister had this map of the world puzzle that she would not let me touch. So, when she would go to school in the morning, I would take the puzzle from her and spend my time putting it together, and then taking it apart before she got home. Years later, I got a 3D puzzle of the globe that I still have lying around in my house somewhere. I used to take it apart and put it back together every once in a while, which is reminiscent of how I would treat my older sister’s puzzle.  

As I got older, I started putting together more complex puzzles, but one thing I could not seem to do was finish a 1000 piece puzzle. I would always quit after making the border because the rest of the task seemed too daunting. Over quarantine I found myself returning to one of those large puzzles. It was a coca cola themed puzzle that I have had for a couple years now that I had started more than once, but never finished. I spent all my free time over the span of a week putting it together and soon enough I was putting the last few pieces in place. Since then, I have completed a couple more 1000 piece puzzles. I use them as a way to relax after a long period of stress. Making one of these puzzles is always quite a task though, which is why I usually don’t take them apart afterwards like I used to. I have to dedicate a lot of time to making them, and I usually forget beforehand how long it takes me to put a puzzle of that size together. I also always find myself working on them at the strangest hours. I often start them in the middle of the day and tirelessly work on them until all of sudden it's 3am and it hits me that I am in dire need of sleep. I also tend to make them on the floor, sometimes in the middle of my living room, which leads to my back and shoulders getting sore and the rest of my family ends up having to carefully maneuver themselves around the mess I have made. 

So, while I enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles, they are not something I can do often. They are time consuming and can distract me from more productive uses of my time. Once I start making one, it becomes difficult to pull myself away, even for important tasks like eating and sleeping.  After completing puzzles, I feel accomplished, but also exhausted, so I make sure to stay away from them for a while afterwards. I put together and solve puzzles infrequently, because the process is fun but also taxing. The rarity of the occasion ends up being part of what makes it so fun. Rather than doing it all the time, I only work on puzzles every once in a while, so that I can continue to enjoy the task, rather than getting bored through repetition.