True or False: We scholarly young women should not waste our time during free period on whether to “pass go” in an imaginary world of Monopoly when there are English essays to finish and Café M to visit for delicious cookies.

False.

Even Marlborough girls need to occasionally stop and take a breather to stay on track and prevent a mental breakdown. This may seem like a speech by another one of those middle-aged female therapists who attempts to convince uninterested sleep-deprived teenage girls to take her advice because “she understands.” However, this is a fellow student promoting something the school provided for stress relief in an unexpected form: board games.

When I first saw the board games in the ARC, I thought: another idea created by some member of the “Marlborough school community” who thinks she (or he) can help students relieve stress. Yeah, right. The next day, I walked into the ARC to find a group of usually gloomy-faced seniors transformed into the rare first semester Smiling Seniors. What is it that brought them together through the pain of multiple APs on top of college applications? A simple game of Monopoly.
If the magical board games were able to affect seniors, they can most definitely affect everyone else ten times more effectively. So, next time you’re stressed at school, sit down in the ARC, pull out a board, and win the game of L.I.F.E.