Discussions

I still remember the first time I stumbled across a Sudoku puzzle. It was on a rainy Sunday afternoon, the kind where the sky refuses to let in the sun and the only sound in the room is the soft patter of rain on the window. I had just finished binge-watching some random TV series, and I was looking for something… different. Something that would make my brain stretch in a way that Netflix never could. That’s when I opened the newspaper and saw the little 9x9 grid filled with a few numbers already in place. Little did I know, this innocent-looking square would pull me into a world of mental gymnastics, frustration, and oddly satisfying triumphs.

Sudoku is deceptively simple in concept. Fill the 9x9 grid so that each row, column, and 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 exactly once. Sounds easy, right? Ha! I laughed when I first read that, naïve and cocky, thinking, “I can totally handle this.” Fast forward ten minutes later, my brain was twisted into a knot, and I was questioning every single decision I had made.