Someone brought up that ‘hyunju squid game’ thing to me the other day. Honestly, it just made me think about something totally different, something I tried setting up a while back.
My Little Experiment
So, I had this idea, right? Get a small group from the local community center together. We weren’t doing anything intense like in that show, not at all. Just some simple team challenges, kind of like old-school field day stuff. Thought it would be good for folks to connect.
I started planning it out. First thing, find a space. Went down to the park, talked to the admin there. Got a slot booked for a Saturday afternoon. Easy enough.
Then, I needed activities. I wanted stuff anyone could do, nothing too physical.
- One idea was a building challenge with newspaper and tape.
- Another was a memory game, matching pairs of cards I’d make.
- And maybe a simple scavenger hunt around a small part of the park.
Gathering materials was the next step. I went to the store, bought some tape, collected old newspapers. Printed out pictures for the memory cards myself, cut them out, stuck them on cardboard. Took a few evenings, actually.
Then I had to get people involved. Put up a sign-up sheet at the center. Talked to a few regulars I knew. Got about fifteen names pretty quickly. Felt good, thought this was going to work out great.
Where Things Got Messy
The day came. I got there early, set up my little stations. Then people started arriving. And here’s where the smooth sailing stopped.
First off, only about half the people who signed up actually showed. Okay, happens sometimes. But then, the folks who did come… well. Getting them into teams was like herding cats. Some people only wanted to be with their friends. Others didn’t really want to participate, just sort of stood around chatting.
We tried starting the newspaper building thing. One team just couldn’t agree on a design, spent the whole time arguing. Another team finished in two minutes and then looked bored.
The memory game was worse. I laid out the cards, explained the rules. People started flipping them over randomly, not even trying to remember where things were. A couple of kids who tagged along with their parents just ran through the middle of it all.
The scavenger hunt? I handed out the clue sheets. Two people actually went off to look. The rest stayed put, asking me if there were prizes. I hadn’t planned on prizes, it was just for fun. That seemed to kill the mood right there.
It sort of fizzled out after about an hour. People drifted away. I ended up packing up my tape and soggy newspaper towers mostly by myself.
So yeah, that ‘hyunju squid game’ mention just reminded me of that afternoon. You can have an idea, plan it out, get the stuff ready. But getting people to actually engage, to work together, even for something simple and fun? That’s the real challenge. It’s not always like you see on TV, that’s for sure. It’s usually just… messy.
