I am the Lord of Catan!

There’s no denying it, I’m an extremely competitive person. Ever since I was younger, I’ve always loved friendly (or sometimes not so friendly) competition. Though I’ve gotten better about not being a sore loser (when I was younger, I would actually stomp off in the middle of games if I was pretty sure I wouldn’t win), I still get a great deal of satisfaction from winning, usually board games.

Being competitive runs in my family, I guess. With three kids in the household, we often get compared to each other despite the fact that the three of us are all extremely different. In a way, it’s pushed us to all to “specialize” in our own comfort zones but it’s also led me to shy away from things I have anxiety that I might not do well in.

The pressure of competitiveness is a double edged sword – while on the one hand, it can drive and motivate you to excel and be better, it can also leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth when you constantly need to be number one and can’t settle for anything less.

Recently, my competitive attitude has really come out while playing a game called “Settlers of Catan.” I’ve never played this game before college and while I was an undergrad, there wasn’t much time to play board games so when we played during Game Night, I was hooked. It’s a combination of luck, probability, strategy, and a good poker face. It’s a bit of a steep learning curve and there are a lot of pieces that go on the board, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a pretty addicting game. The total game time can total more than an hour, so it’s a time investment but in my opinion, it’s totally worth it. Also, if you win, you can rejoice in my victory cry: “I AM THE LORD OF CATAN!”

I’ve played both the original version of Settlers as well as the Star Trek version. Yes, call me a nerd but when I saw the game at Target, I couldn’t resist. Another one of my favorite games is Set. That one is more a game of reaction and spatial thinking.

I hope there are more Game Nights in my future. What are some of your favorite games to play? (I sincerely hope someone says Cards Against Humanity because that game is the shi* in a kind of convoluted kind of way.)