In my younger days I was always on time. Well, actually I was usually early, but you get the idea. These days I’m not quite as reliable. I like to think my punctuality was beaten out of me. Too often it has happened that I show up on time for some event, and then spend long periods waiting because other people didn’t have the same standards as I had.
I was punished for being on time. So you learn to adapt to not be punished. But today I fell off the wagon and showed up early.
In other words, my company had an outing to the Edmonton Corn Maze. It’s a nice place, with various farm stuff happening around it as well. The maze is divided into two sections. Each section has five parts, marked by signposts. These signposts basically mark mini-mazes. You have to hit all ten signposts, which means you aren’t searching for the exit, but the next signpost. You are given some questions, and if you answer correctly, you get a hint as to which direction to go.
When it (finally) started, I stayed with the group. But that changed eventually. What happened was that I started paying attention. When I was going with everyone, my mind shut off. But then I started going ahead a bit, and I concentrated on paying attention to where I was and what paths were leading where. Note the paths not taken, and be aware when you think you see another path that is probably the other end of that untaken path. I had more fun that way, I think. But isn’t the point to get lost, and make mistakes?
On the second phase, I stuck with a group of coworkers who had arrived on time. We got to the sixth signpost, and we were pretty sure of our answer (which was wrong) so we headed left. Eventually, all routes looked like they headed back to the signpost, except for this one which was over a lot of fallen corn. But there weren’t any ribbons blocking it, so it looked like a valid route. However, after passing it, we promptly found the ninth signpost. Okay, we had missed the seventh and eighth.
This is where you get to note various personalities and get to make stereotypes. I, the software developer, decided to go back and do the maze properly. The point wasn’t to get out as fast as possible, but to play the game. All the others were marketers and sales, who did want to take shortcuts; tired of pushing the baby stroller. Later, I found the program manager made sure his people/children were happy and left the maze after only the second signpost.
I would go again, but I used a GPS along the way so that I could see the results of my wandering. I’ve started at it and compared it to the aerial photo of the maze to figure out where I went.
I think I know the maze too well now.

Corn Maze, a photo by ad_havoc on Flickr.