BINGO! - by Bigdan

The rain had started around 7pm, but nobody cared. Five friends were sitting in Tobi's apartment, eating suya, drinking soft drinks and arguing over whose turn it was. “Guy, stop cheating.” “I am not cheating.” “You literally Googled the word.” “I wanted to confirm the spelling. That is not cheating.” “Bro, you Googled the meaning too.” Everybody laughed. It was Saturday night and somehow, instead of going to a club, they had ended up playing Scrabble. Tobi was winning. And he was becoming unbearable. “See this thing called intelligence?” he said, tapping his chest. “Some of us were born with it.” “Keep quiet and play your turn,” Amaka said. Tobi picked his seven tiles. He stared at them. Then he frowned. “Ah.” “What happened?” Kunle asked. “Nothing.” “Show us.” “No.” Everybody leaned forward. Tobi finally dropped the tiles on the table. A. E. I. L. N. R. S. Amaka laughed. “Bro, you have all the vowels in the English language.” “Exactly. Useless.” Kunle looked at his own tiles. Q. Z. X. B. K. T. J. He smiled. “Now this is suffering.” They all laughed again. The board already had several words. Tobi had the better letters, but he couldn't see a big word. Kunle had terrible letters, but he kept looking at the board. After almost two minutes, Kunle said: “I have something.” “Impossible.” He placed one letter on the board. Then another. He connected his letters to an existing word. His word was not a BINGO And it landed on a Triple Word Score. His points jumped. Everybody went quiet. Tobi looked at him. “Wait.” Kunle smiled. “What's wrong?” “You used those horrible letters to score that much?” Kunle shrugged. “It's not about the letters.” Tobi laughed. “Of course it is.” “No. It's about where you put them.” That sentence stayed on the table. Nobody said anything for a few seconds. Then Amaka said, “Omo.” She looked at the board. “That's actually deep.” “Don't start,” Tobi said. But Amaka was already thinking. She looked at the seven tiles in her hand. Then at the board. Then back at the tiles. “Maybe this game is actually life.” Tobi groaned. “Please don't turn Scrabble into a motivational speech.” But she continued. “Think about it. Sometimes you look at somebody else's life and think they have better letters.” She pointed at Tobi. “He has the easy letters.” Then she pointed at Kunle. “He has the rubbish ones.” Everybody laughed. “But somehow, he is still scoring.” Kunle nodded. “Because I stopped complaining about what I had and started looking at what I could do with it.” Nobody laughed this time. The game continued. Tobi eventually found a word. Amaka found another. Kunle kept playing small words in smart places. By the end of the game, Tobi still had the longest words. But Kunle had the highest score. Tobi stared at the final board. “You know what annoys me?” “What?” “I actually had better letters.” Kunle smiled. “Maybe.” “So how did you beat me?” Kunle picked up the empty tile bag. “Because you were busy looking at your letters.” He pointed at the board. “I was looking at the game.” Nobody spoke. Outside, the rain was still falling. Inside, five friends sat around a Scrabble board that suddenly looked less like a game and more like a mirror. Maybe life is like that. We spend too much time looking at what somebody else was given. Better family. Better connections. Better money. Better opportunities. Better looks. Better luck. We count their letters and then complain about ours. But Scrabble does not ask who got the best letters. It asks what you can make with the ones in your hand. Sometimes the person with the most advantages still loses. Sometimes the person who starts with very little finds the right place to put it. And sometimes, the thing you called a useless letter is exactly what you need for your next move. So maybe the problem is not always that you have less. Maybe you just haven't learned how to play your hand. Your letters are not your destiny. <blockquote>Your move matters.</blockquote>

Games & Lessons

Contributor Points

Points-to-Coupons

Referral Earning