In order to show that failure is acceptable, National Honor Society (NHS) visited The Mind Maze Escape Room in Arlington, last Friday.

“This was a good opportunity for NHS students,” senior Jakob Hazen said. “Most in NHS have never failed or had a challenge. This was a good chance for them to have to think outside of the box.”

Escape rooms feature a game where a group of people are locked inside a room and have to work together to solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints and strategies to open the door.

“I enjoy going to escape rooms because it makes me think in a different way than I do at school,” Hazen said.

Players were given a set time limit of one hour to get out of the room.

“What I liked most was the pressure when I was in the Mad Scientist Room,” Hazen said. “Every 10 minutes or so a voice would come over the intercom as the time counted down.”

Only two out of five groups managed to beat the time.

“I learned that it’s okay to fail,” junior Sunbola Adesanya said. “It’s not the end of the world and not everything can be solved in one try. It’s better to work smarter, not harder.”

Teacher Erica Marburger related the trip to the novel, “Failing Forward” by John Maxwell.

“I wanted the students to learn how to communicate and work together, but I also wanted them to fail,” she said. “We then talked about the book to discuss want failure really means and how it is actually a path to success.”

The Mad Scientist room, which had a passing percentage of 30, was the only room completed.

“One big reason the other groups could not finish was because they had trouble working as a team,” Hazen said. “Teamwork is extremely important. In a situation like this there is no extra time for people to argue amongst themselves. They need to agree and move quickly so it can go as smoothly as possible with little wasted time.”

Adesanya was in one of the groups that didn’t make it out of the room.

“Learning how to get up after failing is important because you are able to see that failure doesn’t mean that it’s the end,” Adesanya said. “Next time I fail, I’ll have a different point of view from before because I know now to stop and think before retrying.”