Ice Breaker

If you’ve ever been bowling, you’ll know that it’s a surprisingly good way to get to know people. This seems to be due mainly to the significant competitiveness that rises in even the most docile of us when the faced with the prospect of potentially winning a competition that, on the surface, seems simple. Naturally, we decided a healthy dose of competitive spirit was the best way to get to know the other residents at the start to this year.

Several of the other girls were largely confident about their chances of doing well, which is exactly the kind of surety that deceptively simple games like bowling thrive on destroying. True to form, the points each person earned fluctuated back and forth from round to round, and it was more or less anyone’s game from the very beginning.

As it turns out, one of the more effective ways to actually score points (besides being one of the rare talents who can actually throw the ball in an arrow-straight line) was to fling the ball into the air. One of the girls adopted this interesting method, and ended up scoring more points than half of the rest of us.

Ultimately, we spent a very enjoyable evening together, and allowed the enthusiasm and driving competitiveness of the game to break the ice between everyone and send the year off to a good start. As anyone can imagine, making friends is an important part of the university experience, and one made significantly easier by evening like this one.