So, today I decided to get into the world of crossword puzzles. I’ve always seen those people who can knock out a crossword in no time, and I thought, “Why not give it a shot?” Man, was I in for a surprise. I started with what I thought was a simple crossword puzzle. You know, the kind you find in the back of a newspaper. I grabbed a pen, sat down, and got to work.
The first few clues seemed easy enough. I was feeling pretty good, filling in words here and there. But then, I hit a wall. Some of these clues were so vague, it felt like trying to guess a stranger’s password. And the words, who uses these words in everyday conversation? I sure don’t. I mean, I consider myself to have a decent vocabulary, but some of these words were out of this world.
I spent a good amount of time just staring at the grid, trying to make sense of it all. I even tried to look up some of the words, and I found 40 possible answers for just one clue! That’s insane. I thought I was going crazy. I even tried filling in every possible word with any of the answers to try to make sense, and the crossword turned into a messy pile of wrong words.
Here’s what I did to try to solve it:
- Read all the clues first: I thought getting an overview would help, but it just made me more confused.
- Start with the easy ones: This worked for a bit, but then I got stuck.
- Look for intersecting words: This was a total mess. I ended up with a jumble of letters that made no sense.
- Try to guess based on the number of letters: Yeah, that didn’t work out too well, either.
The Frustration Sets In
After a while, I started to get really frustrated. I mean, how do people do this? I felt like I was missing some secret code or something. I tried everything I could think of, from looking at the clues from different angles to trying to understand the structure of the grid. Nothing worked.
I even read somewhere that some people are good at crosswords because they have a strong vocabulary and spelling skills. Well, I thought I did, but this puzzle made me question everything. And get this, I read that the New York Times crossword gets harder throughout the week, with Monday being the easiest and Saturday the hardest. And the Sunday one is even bigger! I can’t even imagine tackling those. I wanted to beat the first stage and then I can just give up.
Giving Up
In the end, I had to admit defeat. I just couldn’t crack it. I guess I’m not cut out for the crossword life. It’s way harder than it looks. But hey, at least I tried, right? Maybe I’ll stick to Sudoku or something. Or maybe I’ll just go back to scrolling through my phone. That’s something I’m actually good at. If you’re one of those crossword whizzes, I salute you. You’ve got some serious brainpower. As for me, I think I’ll leave the crosswords to the experts. But the process is really fun and I want to challenge it one more time.
