Last week I did a quick list of lessons from an escape room, but I wasn’t always a fan.

First of all, when escape rooms became popular years ago, I never wanted to do it because I thought that there was a possibility of a zombie or other creature in the room with you and that was too anxiety-inducing to be fun. (It turns out there were escape rooms with an actual person in the room with you!)

Secondly, I was afraid that maybe I wasn’t smart enough.

Thirdly, while I’m not claustrophobic, it did seem scary to be locked in a room, especially when I thought the chance of failure was high.

It turns out there was nothing to fear on any of those fronts. There are plenty of escape rooms that do not have a person in the room with you. And there are lots of different themes that aren’t scary at all. We’ve done themed rooms that run the gamut from Rugrats room to Alice in Wonderland to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

As for being smart enough, that also hasn’t a problem because 1) there are games of varying difficulty and 2) I have smart friends. Oh, and also there is typically a game master who will give you hints if you need them.

Finally, the doors are never locked.