Life vs. Sudoku

I've become quite the jet-setter as of late and am always finding new ways to entertain myself in-flight. I was thumbing through a Delta Sky Magazine and found a few Sudoku puzzles towards the back. I fished out a pen from my Longchamp and began to play. Sudoku always calms me. I used to play it before I went to bed in an effort to relax. (I'm a terrible sleeper.) I don't do it nearly as much now - once in awhile on my BlackBerry or if I find it on a discarded newspaper. And besides, there are few things I love more than a challenge.

I got to work and realized about a third of the way through how the way I play has changed. I used to fill in the spaces quickly, carelessly. I'd make mistakes and not realize it until it was too late. My mind ran a mile a minute and so did my hand. Not this time. Things were different.

I worked slowly, carefully. I filled in numbers only when I was absolutely sure that they were in their rightful squares. I made one mistake and realized it seconds later, fixing it immediately. I sighed when faced with an infinite abyss of blanks and felt small surges of joy when I scribbled fours and eights and got closer to the end. It made me think about how not only the way I play has altered, but the way I live my life has as well, and how parallel the two concepts are.

One of the few things I love more than a challenge is the promise I make myself upon completion. A trade off. If I can do this, I'm going to do that. The plane began to descend and I told myself that if I finished, if I won... good things were going to happen for me.

I solved the puzzled with time to spare.