If you were to peek into the Upper Campus library on any given Monday, you most likely would find a group of OVS students gathered around a wooden table, putting together a jigsaw puzzle piece by piece.
It’s a scene out of the past, one you could easily imagine being played out decades ago in the same library by a different generation of OVS students, but nowadays this sight is a rarity.
Except when it’s time for Puzzle Club.
What is the Ojai Valley School puzzle club? Most obviously, it is a student endorsed elective where, on Monday afternoons, students gather to take a break from their busy lives and work on puzzles.
But it is so much more.
While this club has a few “regulars,” each meeting brings a different group of students. Gathered around their most recently accumulated puzzle, students use this time as a means of escaping the technology run world into a simpler place filled with laughter, camaraderie and puzzles.
“I would definitely describe puzzle club as a moment of tranquility and peace – you can just concentrate on something else besides your coursework,” said sometime-member, junior Jacob Tadlock. “It’s a really great way to catch up with friends, and you’re always going to have different people to talk to.”
Our current generation has grown up in a world of text messaging, IM-ing, and DM-ing, of FaceTiming, Skyping, and Tweeting. We’re basically surrounded by copious means of passing time too quickly.
We have grown up in a world of deadlines, of text messaging, of IM-ing, and DM-ing, and FaceTime, and Skype, and emailing, and Google Chat, and Tweeting, and various forms of passing time too quickly.
Puzzle club provides a chance to breathe.
It provides a chance to sit on the couch, pick up a puzzle piece, and talk with friends – without the distraction of iMessage, without emojis, and without the constant need to speed up time.
At the heart of puzzle club are the opportunities it provides. It is a chance to slow down and appreciate the people around.
And we don’t get that very often.
