Telestrations

               Telestrations is a board game that uses up to 9 players. Each player has a notepad, an eraser cloth, a card with a dozen different words, and a marker. The game is played by a die being rolled, and using that number given from the die, you pick a word from your card and write it on the first page of your note book. After this is done, you then pass your note book (to either the left or right, depending on the rules of the group playing) and the next person will attempt to draw a picture of your word. After that, each person passes their note book again, and next person must guess the word from the previous drawing. This is repeated until all of the pages are filled, and the note book is returned to its original owner. Like the game states, this is the game Telephone, but with drawing. It is a fun, family friendly game, but that is not the point of this paper. The game can have a much deeper meaning, and that is to help people realize that it is sometimes ok to be bad at something.

            You are probably wondering how a board game can help a person realize this, well let me give you an example. The worst you are at drawing, the more fun this game becomes. Because when the next person see’s your “who knows what it could be”, they mainly just guess a word. This throws a curve ball at the end when you are giving out points and wondering how you went from say the President of a University, to a pizza. So what does that example prove? If you are self-conscious of what your “artwork” looks like, it is ok if it is bad, because it makes the game more fun. Everyone gets a laugh out of it, and that self-conscious feeling begins to go away. This in turn can help you open up, have more fun, and maybe make some new connections. Ok, ok, you are probably thinking “cool man, but how does this help me in real life situations”, well I will tell you. One of the most commonly asked questions when going into a professional interview is “what is your biggest weakness, and how do you plan on improving that weakness.” I have personally been asked this in an interview situation before. When you go into an interview, you usually plan to talk about your strengths; you know, to make you sound good so you can get the job. So when they throw a curve ball like this at you, it usually trips most people up. What they are looking for is that you are ok with admitting you have weaknesses, and that if you are trying to make progress on those weaknesses, you will be able to handle some given situation in the work place that may play against your strong points (if you are planning to go to some really big job interview, I recommend going to an interview workshop. It was very helpful for me). One of my biggest weaknesses is not expressing or talking about my feelings, a very common weakness among males in today’s society. This is a weakness because; if I am extremely upset I tend to bottle it all up inside. This can affect my work in the work place, especially in my field of work, a Certified Nursing Aid (CNA). Working on this, such as talking to my supervisor (someone with you know, a lot more experience in these situations) may show my weakness, but it will help me calm down and do better at my job.

            As I sat down to first start playing the game, I knew only one person in my group. So I can’t say everyone was talking too much. But after we were done with the first round, everyone was laughing and talking as if we all knew each other for years. Everyone’s shyness or doubt disappeared.  For instance, if it was not for spell check, I doubt anyone would be able to understand half this paper. To say the least, I am really bad at spelling. So when it came to one of the rounds where I had to guess, I did not know how to properly spell the word. The worst part was it was the name of the building we were in, Fawick, which I have only ever had 2 classes in. So instead I spelt it Fay-a-wick. Instead of people laughing at me because I did not know how to spell the word, they were laughing with me, and I actually won points because of it.

            So all in all, I am saying that it is ok to have weaknesses, and it’s ok to be bad at something. It does not make you look weak, or cause people to judge you.  Instead it can help you become stronger and even break the ice in some situations, and this board game can help show you that.