My morning routine was modified in 2022. Almost every morning this past year I woke up, turned on my phone and before I did the usual Twitter and Instagram scroll, I went online and typed in “Wordle”.

There has almost never been a day that I have missed Wordle this year. The world obsessed over the word game for a few months. I remain obsessed with it even now. A win in the morning always gives me a kick and puts a smile on my face.

All thanks to Josh Wardle’s romantic gesture for his wife.

Wardle created the game for his wife, who loved word puzzles. The New York Times wrote that Wardle wanted to create a guessing game just for the “both of them.” But soon after, the couple shared the game on their WhatsApp family group. When Wardle found that his family was obsessed with the game, he shared “Wordle” with the world. According to NYT, on November 1, 90 people played the game. Two months later, 300,000 people played the game.

I got interested in the game after it was all over my Twitter page. People were posting their results. It became a worldwide competition. My friends and I started posting our scores on our WhatsApp groups.

The enthusiasm seemed to have died down, at least on Twitter and my WhatsApp groups. But my love for it has remained strong. I also do Quordle and Octordle – variations of Wordle where you have to guess four words and eight words in the same attempt. Not just in the mornings, I also play practice versions of the games when I feel very stressed out because it helps me focus better and calm down.

These tiny wins have made me smile even on very gloomy days.