Wordle and all that drama!
It started at the beginning of this year. Whenever I’d open Twitter, I’d see a set of yellow, green, and black squares. It was the Wordle craze. Brushing it away as just another trend, I decided to ignore it. But day after day, I’d see more people post about it. Since I have enjoyed playing Word games, I decided to try it once and then let it go. So, I played Wordle. But then the letting go didn’t happen.
From the six tries it took me to crack something as banal as “Banal” in that first attempt, to having guessed the word correctly in 2 tries, it has been a roller coaster ride! I have never been that intuitive person who has guessed the word in one try- maybe that is because I operate with a very small set of words as my first guess- or that my forgetful brain can’t think of more words at that point in time.
So, I start off, with a word that I think is good enough to start with and then I try to arrange and rearrange- scratching my head, asking myself if it makes sense, struggling to find something that fits in. Most days it takes 4 tries and on some rare occasions when I am lucky 3 guesses are enough. On the rarest of days, perhaps my really lucky ones, 2 guesses suffice. But once that 5th guess is made, the panic sets in, especially with combinations that have many possibilities or on days when I wonder if that’s even a word!
From that day when I first attempted a Wordle to today, I have cracked them all! Talk about routines and habit formation! On days when I am awake at midnight, I can’t go to bed unless I have cracked the day’s Wordle. And on days when I sleep early because I must wake up early, I must solve the day’s Wordle before I begin my work for the day! When I had to work from office the other day and I didn’t find time to attempt the days Wordle before I left for work, I found myself waiting for my lunch break to solve the Wordle. It was only after I’d solved it, my mind was at ease!
When it became something that I had to do every day, I decided that I’d try it out until I hit the 50-day streak and then stop. And the series of disappointments arrived! It was first trying out if whatever letters fit in even made a sensible word and then having submitted my guess, I went straight to Google to find out what it meant. Wordle was now owned by NYT and the new website meant that I lost my previous stats. I didn’t want to play the next day, but I couldn’t resist the lure of the game after being bombarded with those green, yellow and black squares everywhere. I gave in and I played again.
This year,I may have not been regular with my other habits and routines, but this one I’ve stuck to so far -one that I didn’t intend to create in the first place. I kept playing Wordle because it was fun to recall all the common words I knew and figure it out and then it became a task on days when finding out the words stopped being fun because they were so rare! Some days are good and then there are days when I sit listing down the possibilities on paper or on the notes app on my phone. And on days when nothing else seems to be going right, the delight of having solved the Wordle and its many forms becomes the highlight of the day!
I don’t know when I’ll stop or if I’ll stop. One of my friends shared the website where all the Wordles from Day 1 are archived and that was what I tried solving while recovering from an illness! Wordle is daily task now- so is Wordle 2- a 6 letter Wordle that has a new word every 12 hours and then there is Worldle(where you have to guess the country based on the map outline).
I know I am not alone! Just past midnight, there’s a Whatsapp group that pops with everyone’s attempts at solving the Wordle for the day. The Wordle craze is everywhere. So has it caught up with you yet?
