February NorCal Meetups
In the past few weeks, the NorCal OHS community has been busy with frequent meetups. This includes the Writing Alliance’s inaugural meetup, as well as a meetup at Red Door Escape Room. These two back-to-back events provided OHSers based in NorCal with a great opportunity to connect with the peers they usually see online.
On Saturday, February 11th, Isabelle (Izzy) (’27) hosted the Writing Alliance’s first meetup at her residence. The Writing Alliance is a community of student authors that aim to help one another pursue their passion for literature. The meetup lasted roughly two hours; students were able to discuss a variety of topics before packing up for the day. To start off, students used icebreakers and introduced themselves. Then, they passed around their own writing that they wanted to share, ranging from personal narratives to science fiction novels-in-progress. Using 10-minute intervals to read each work, the students were able to read through their peers’ writing in just under an hour. After, they enthusiastically shared aspects of others’ writing that they enjoyed, what they hoped to see, critiques, and more. Later, students chose from prompts such as world-building and character depictions, and worked on writing about that topic for half an hour. At the end, as the event was wrapping up, they discussed famous literary works. This included students’ favorite books, any potential criticism they had for famous authors, and upcoming movie remakes.
Multiple students who attended the event claimed that it was a valuable experience—not only were they able to support other writers expand on their literary passions, but they were also able to get peer feedback. Student writers were able to bond over their passion for literature. Isabelle expresses, “My favorite part of the meetup was definitely when we shared our main writing styles/genres and why we enjoyed them!” The event was undoubtedly a success; the Writing Alliance plans to meet again shortly before spring break!
The Red Door Escape Room
The following day, OHSers were able to meet at the Red Door Escape Room in San Mateo. Students were placed in one of two rooms—”The Gift,” which was of medium difficulty, and “Confinement,” which was harder. “The Gift” was a series of rooms centered around a storyline about stealing a sword from an antique shop, and escaping in time. On the other hand, the “Confinement” room had an eerie aura, with various jumpscares throughout. It followed a girl lost in the illusions of her nightmares. The goal was to help her make sense of her memories, embedded in the various stages of the escape room, to escape her nightmare. Meanwhile, parents went to eat, discussing their kids’ course plans for next year.
The escape rooms epitomized the value of teamwork—whether it was gathering hints, solving puzzles, or finding secret compartments before the 1 hour timer was up, students collaborated extensively. While students in “The Gift” made it out with hardly any time to spare, others in the “Confinement” room never made it out. Students were evidently enraptured by the experience, eagerly discussing the riddles even after the escape room was over.
Students in Norcal conclude that these experiences were extremely rewarding, and are looking forward to future meetups!