The Seven Samurai


This past
Friday afternoon, the members of the English Department got together after
school to take on The Warrior’s Way challenge at Red Door Escape Room. When we
all arrived, our game master took us down a dim hallway with closed doors on
either side. Behind the doors we could hear the frenzied sounds of people
trying to escape, and even a few screams when a masked game master jumped into
a room and scared his group. Our game master wore a Where’s Waldo costume, and
immediately informed us that we were about to undertake an advanced-level
escape room challenge. I took this as a compliment that Kevin must have had
great confidence in our department when he signed us up.
With very
few clues and little context, our game master split us up into two groups and
locked us into two parallel rooms, where we had to puzzle our way through the
samurai kitsch if we wanted to be reunited. Undaunted by this first challenge,
we used our communication skills (after all, we are English teachers), which
included knocking on the wall to one another, and we quickly made it to a second
room where we came together again. In this room Kate mastered the steps of
Akido, Tiz honed her Samurai sword skills, Lisa utilized her tea-sniffing
skills, and Leila saved the day by simply standing up from the bench she was
sitting on to allow a trap door to open.
This took
us to the next room, a samurai library of sorts, and the clock on the wall
reminded us that we only had a few short minutes to make it out. With the clock
ticking down, we had to harness our inner-samurai calm to solve a puzzle that
involved the different tones of bells. With very little assistance from the
game master, we dashed out of the escape room with only 58 seconds on the clock.
We made it out, triumphant, and all of the game masters were in awe that we had
made it through their challenge so quickly. More importantly though, we worked
together as a team and laughed together on a Friday afternoon. It was a great
way to start the weekend, and reminded me of how grateful I am to work with
such a dynamic department.

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