“Sometimes you’ve got to make chicken salad out of chicken manure”, I uttered to myself as I quarreled with my thoughts. “Board Game Friday” had turned into an intense debacle. Our group chose to play Scrabble- a simple, elementary game… so I thought. 

    Scrabble is a game embarked upon by thousands throughout the country. The rules are quite simple; each player is to draw 8 random letters. Next, each individual attempts to make a word from his/her 8 letters. But, it’s necessary to be quick, as he/she will be timed during their turn. During this week's board game Friday, our group used a pencil and a scratch sheet of paper to keep track of the word scores for each player.

    Kindred to the troubles of life, scrabble has many similarities that can be intertwined with life circumstances.   Wrestling with 8 letters, I became engrossed in my own world, shutting off everything else going on around me. Unlike my partner, Celina, I am not a breathing dictionary. The noisy classroom has somehow become silent. My encouraging teammates were muted. I was narrow minded and solely focused on my own stratosphere. Unfortunately for me and my dear friend mayhem, we missed out on real world- human connections because both of us were drowning in the puddle of failure. If only I had just looked at the big picture.

     After pitying myself for a while, I looked at the hourglass. The sand was on its last grain. I quickly made a word. “Wax”. I couldn’t control the hands I was dealt, but I could develop most of it… and that’s exactly what I did. “Beeswax” was my final word. It fell in front of me. Bigger is not always better. The little words can take you just as far as the lengthy ones. I had to learn the hard way that “wax” would evolve into “beeswax”. 

    At the end of the game, we calculated everyone’s points to see who had the most. It was easy to recognize that a number doesn’t necessarily define you. Rather, your skill and determination throughout the game outweighs any score that would ever be enumerated. Whether you form a one letter word or a seven letter word, what matters in life is the people who are around you.  It isn’t about the score.  It is about the people playing the game of life with you.