A recent article in The Guardian spelling out the importance of play in boosting healthy child development made me contemplate my own experiences of play. Even as a teenager, I still consider play a prized part of my life. The very idea of playing cards with my family at the weekend or football with my brothers at the park can itself be a comforting thought to lean on during times of stress, one that proves all the more rewarding when it turns out to be reality.

Like most others, my childhood days were not spent musing over play because there was no need; to echo healer and author Vince Gowmon, it was already my “full-time occupation”! Among my earliest memories are weekly trips to the beach in the Maldives (where I lived until I was seven years old). My parents would meet up with three or four families and have a picnic breakfast while I (along with the other children) played with sand, jumped into the shallow water or threw around a beachball. The lack of method to the madness was what gave these experiences life and sealed them in my memory forever. Scientists believe that access to unstructured play is integral to fostering creativity and cognitive development in young children. I saw this play out spectacularly many years ago in my youngest brother, who at two years old was already an expert jigsaw puzzle-solver and promising artistic talent (having been given enough time and space to experiment with both undisturbed). As Caroline Penny (author of ‘The Parenting Toolkit’) puts it, “Play is the way children learn to think. Through play children develop their creativity, spontaneity, sense of humour, desire to communicate and imagination.”

Fast forward ten years and my passion for play has evolved into more rule-based forms of recreation, namely card games, board games and sport. Most recently, I entered the chess world through the free online platform Lichess.com, enjoying every time format from purely instinctive ‘Bullet’ to the delicate complexities of ‘Rapid’. I am not alone in this respect; since the record-breaking series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, millions have flocked towards chess as a new pastime or perhaps to take their minds off the monotony of lockdown. But my recently discovered hobby was by no means a substitute for the entire season of school cricket and several football fixtures that were cancelled over the last year due to the pandemic. Lamenting over these missed opportunities only reaffirms my dependence on play as a means of release and relief, and a time to connect with teammates and friends.

My firm belief (having spoken to Year 11 students in January) is that play holds equal value to teenagers and young adults as it does to small children. Without collective acknowledgement of this simple truth, we will always see play solely as a coping mechanism rather than a need and an obligation. How, then, could we possibly live up to the timeless proverb, “Work while you work, play while you play”?