August 7, 2021
I was jettisoned into a new world.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I have always remained close with my family back home in Toronto. I attended school there from elementary all the way to college, occasionally plowing into my homework. On weekends I hopped between ice rinks attending my brother’s hockey games to staying at home helping my mom with chores. Inevitably, ambition was the devil and opportunity became its advocate. After graduating from college, I decided to venture into the States on my first job away from home.
“Stay safe”. My mom whispered as she and my brother, teary-eyed, said goodbye to me at the airport. I held back tears on my own as a sliver of remorse caught up to me. I forced myself away from my family and embarked on a journey of god-knows-what. “Can’t turn back now”, I tried to comfort myself.
I had always been fond of Sudoku puzzles and was pleasantly surprised to discover the subscription of The Boston Globe at my workplace. For the first two months into my first stint away from home, picking up a copy of the newspaper and putting the pen onto the back pages of the sports section had become a daily ritual after work. As ink flowed onto the fleshy newsprint and formed numbers on a 9 by 9 grid, the sheer repetitiveness of putting down the same nine Arabic numerals confined my desire to explore more. My attention eventually turned to another grid, 15 by 15 in fact, on the very same page.
Living by myself was tough. I wasn’t just stepping into a new adventure as a wide-eyed college freshman. Now I am burdened with expectations—family, career, and the constant struggle to subvert the oppressive reign of loneliness. The last part hit me especially hard, and not just because I am experiencing it for the first time, but also, I know this feeling permeated north of the border and filled the hearts of my mom and my brother. No matter how much they tried to voice otherwise, deep down, I couldn’t overcome the fact that my avaricious appetite for my personal growth caused the painful separation. The regular visits back home did little to quell that.
“Stick and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I never expected to find solace in sets of twenty-six English letters strung together, but here I was, staring down at The Boston Globe crossword puzzle. Nightly routines shifted from numerals to words as I toiled from theme to theme, slightly filling more entries as weeks turned into months. Strangely, those words formed a special companionship that I desperately sought after I thwarted myself into the path of solitude. Maybe it’s because discovering quirks of the English language amused me, or perhaps it’s because axons that connected in my brain while doing those puzzles made me realize I know more than I think, and it was enough to provide a fleeting distraction. Whatever the case, not only did the puzzles satisfy my craving for greater intellectual discoveries, but it also provided a sense of calm and reassurance that everything will be alright in the end.
I was jettisoned into a new world.
“Will Shortz. What an odd name”. I stared down on my NYT Crossword app and launched a pack called “Clever Themes”. I downloaded the app a few days prior out of pure curiosity, because I figured, if all newspapers had their versions of crossword puzzles, how would the biggest one pan out? It didn’t take long before I noticed all puzzles were edited by Will Shortz—there were even packs named after his favorite submissions. Anyways, by then I was so in awe with the creativity of the various themes in crossword puzzles that I wanted to witness firsthand what “clever” ones from The New York Times would offer. Well, I quickly garnered the impression that Shortz held a high standard and the constructors who answered the call fulfilled it. “Shapeshifters” (Thursday, December 22, 2011) is still my most memorable puzzle after two years. I quickly bought into Monday packs, then Tuesdays, then Wednesdays… NYT crossword puzzles had opened a whole new galaxy for me, with the English lexicon as its swirling nebula and eccentric themes as the dazzling stars that formed from within. Sometimes, a worthy fill became its brightest supernova.
As the pandemic arrived in early 2020, so did a new wave of challenges that came with my journey of aspirations. Not only was I still living by myself, but I was also confined within the physical reaches of my humble abode. However, with the newfound camaraderie in crossword puzzles, I refused to let my imagination be shackled in similar fashion. During the midst of a tumultuous year, I subscribed to the NYT Crossword, and a new daily ritual emerged. From the frustrating squares that forced me to press the “Check Puzzle” button to the Crosswordese that I learned the hard way (I see you EPEE, ETON, ETUI, and SERF!), this ritual became part of my journey to growth, normality, or redemption, in whichever way you call it. Was I still penitent when I bid farewell to my mom and my brother in that misty-eyed affair five years ago? Every night. Will I be able to cope with this and find comfort in learning new things and new perspectives, and perhaps one day introduce my family to the joy of NYT Crossword? Absolutely. On the one-year anniversary of my subscription, I even wrote a personal blog detailing my journey and sharing the wonders in solving a crossword puzzle from The New York Times.
I was jettisoned into a new world, but embracing it became the best decision I ever made once I crossed upon a few words.
Best June ever. #25outof30 #crossword @NYTimesWordplay @NYTimesGames @nytimes pic.twitter.com/cAS4SqJJ2L
— David Ding (@DavidYiweiDing) June 30, 2021