It took me quite some time to find a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle that I could afford. The ones at Jigsaw Puzzle World were too expensive. I had tried searching at online stores, but to no avail. So I went to the local bookshops.
Book Xcess didn't have any. Kinokuniya and Popular bookstores had the world-map jigsaw puzzles, but they were only 500 pieces. Finally I found one that I liked at MPH Bookstore. They had a variety, priced between RM20 - RM30, mostly with pictures of famous buildings and landmarks. I wanted animals, and lucky for me, they had this one:
As I poured the puzzle pieces of of their box, I didn't really know where to begin. Do I just take any piece at random, and try to find its match from the remaining 999 pieces? It was all so overwhelming. I decided not to Google for tips and tricks. I would do it by trial and error.
Firstly, I started by separating the pieces by color, so that I could start doing it section by section. The picture could be divided into five distinct colors: blue, yellow, gray, brown/black and spotted:
Then I did the edges, because that seemed to be the easiest:
And I slowly gained momentum from there. As you can see in the picture below, I started with the gray and the yellow sections first:
Then I did the giraffes. I never realized before, how very thin their legs were:
Solving the puzzle got me into a contemplative mood sometimes. There can be 1000 pieces, or 5000, or 10,000, or more, but you can never find any two pieces that are identical. There were times when I made mistakes and false matches. Two pieces may look right together, but eventually it turned out they were not, because one of the pieces just didn't fit in with the rest. And I ended up having to go through each of the remaining pieces to find the one correct match.
I couldn't help but compare it to real life. Someone may seem to be your perfect match in the beginning. You fit right into each other's embrace. But then you begin to realize that something doesn't feel quite right. That person may only be compatible with you, but not with the other important aspects in your life. So you start looking for another, and when you eventually find him/her, you will realize just how much better it feels.
Secondly, each and every puzzle piece has its own place, just like there's a place in this world for everyone, and that's where you would feel you truly belong, without having to force it, or to pretend to be someone you're not.
It took me more or less five days, spread over several weeks, because I only did it on the days that I visited my mom, which was once a week. But finally, I finished it! It was a very satisfying feeling when I put in the last piece of the puzzle, and it clicked into place.
Then I glued all the pieces onto a polystyrene board, to be hung on the wall in my mom's room.
