Grey Matter
By Christina, age 16, Louisiana
Sweet Designs Featured Writer
If you're a student, you get bored in class. If you're a lucky student, you get bored in class with a friend. If you're like any other teenager in the world, this boredom leads to talking, which leads to trouble, which in the end leads to something we all aren't particularly fond of.
By personal experience over the past few years, I've come to realize that games are an exceptional way to pass the time without passing the office. Whereas we're trying to avoid verbal communication, paper, pens, and writing is our substitute of choice. Most of these games are common, and although I'd love to do a bit of history on each, some of them are made up by friends, and their history, for lack of better words, just doesn't exist.
TIP: Don't let it get boring. Keep the game alive. If you're at a loss, write something that doesn't make any sense, because then, if anything, it'll just make it interesting ... as well as highly funny. Then again, scribbling always works, too.
GAMES TO PLAY WITH ANOTHER
1. Hangman: Drawing the stand, noose, and stick figure, one person guesses a letter at a time in order to form a word. The other person knows the word and has given the exact amount of blanks for the letters it contains and for every letter wrong, another part of the picture is drawn.2. Word for Word: Possibly the easiest game I'll mention. The object of this game is to simply write words. Person A writes a word, and immediately after that Person B follows along with the first word that comes to mind. This can continue for pages or for a few simple minutes. It can also be used with themes.
3. Twenty Questions (Written): The object of this game is the same as the spoken version. Person A writes a question, and Person B answers it.
4. Word Scramble: Scramble the letters in the word and have a friend figure them out.
5. Lyrics: Make a song together. Can be totally ridiculous or completely serious. Write one line, then have your friend write the next one in an attempt to rhyme and make sense. Use your imagination!
6. Story Line: Similar to Lyrics. You write a passage and your friend(s) continue it from there. Turns are dependent on how many people are playing.
GAMES TO PLAY BY YOURSELF
7. Crossword Puzzles: Normally takes the form of a square grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages which are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The black squares are used to separate the words or phrases. Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. The clues are then referred to by these numbers and a direction, for example, "4-Across" or "20-Down". At the end of the clue the total number of letters is sometimes given, depending on the style of puzzle and country of publication. (Source: Wikipedia)8. Word Search: Similar to Crossword Puzzles - Buy them already made or make your own (although you and someone else would have to make one and then trade in order to really play. It's no fun finding words if you already know where they are).
9. Freewrite: Write anything that comes to mind. Put it together when you're done, and see if it makes any sense. If anything, it's a way to pass the time, because everyone knows class can, in the words of my friend Samantha, be a drag. Yes, I am aware of how cheesy that sounded.
Anyway, as I mentioned before, most of these are common games you've played as a child or play regularly every day. They work. They do the trick. Best of all, you can improvise in many ways in order to suit your style, and the only thing that will result is possibly a heightened vocabulary and a tired hand.
Of course, like any faithful and hard working student, you can always fall asleep. Personally, I didn't become too fond of the hand prints on my face, but hey, doing whatever works best for you is probably what I suggest. (The funny thing is, we all know we'll end up talking despite my efforts to seem like the good student and tell you about 'educational' alternatives.)
Have fun, and please, don't drool on the paper.
