The Screening Process

One of the best ways I have found to get to know somebody in a short space of time is to take them outside the normal range of expected activities. Today I got the chance to do just that with Irish (a siblings other half). I met Irish for the first time over Christmas but I didn’t get to stick around for long before heading back to work. Add to that fact that Irish was an only child being plunged into a big family Christmas gathering and I really had to cut them a bit of slack.

Today however was the perfect chance for me to figure out Irish and, like all protective siblings, decide whether they were good enough. I assume the idea of an escape room isn’t completely foreign to you all but if it is it’s pretty much a room filled with puzzles (logic, maths, words, all kinds) that you must complete in as short a time as you are able. Puzzle rooms are designed for groups, particularly ones wanting to test their ability to work as a unit.

I have successfully determined that Irish hates maths and doesn’t get stuck into maths problems. The large proportion of maths problems early on in the escape process meant I thought Irish was a bit of a spoil sport. However I then discovered that given any other kind of puzzle or activity Irish will attack it with vigour and a childlike immaturity that suits my family perfectly. Tiny trapdoors and hatches were not something Irish was going to maturely pass by, in fact one could say Irish launched through them. But most importantly pressing buttons for the sake of pressing buttons is something I caught Irish doing.

I’m not saying these characteristics are the characteristics of a perfect person, there’s no such things. People with opposing characteristics are no less valuable and interesting people. But they wouldn’t be right for the sibling whose partners I have a habit of screening… I have to know that even if in the future they start doing the grown up stuff like buying a house and starting a family, my sibling will still be allowed to be the child like, curious and entertaining character that they are.

S. Hansen