A LEGO contest underdog story for the ages

有创意的 块? 主修环境研究和政治学双学位，26岁的克拉拉·摩根知道 how to persevere when inspiration — or even expertise — may be lacking. 乐高新手 在以火博体育为主题的“乐高”活动中，迷你想出了如何一砖一瓦地突破 Masters”-style competition held in conjunction with the 2024 F. 威廉·哈德讲座 以乐高集团地区总裁斯基普·柯达为主角的工商管理课程 ——美洲.

适应性注入了克拉拉异想天开的旅程，并证明了拥抱一个陌生的 挑战(是的，不完美)会导致意想不到的结果——尤其是如果你是 willing to have fun, take risks, and make mistakes 一路走来.

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周三

 2:30 p.m.

“If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.——弗里德里希 尼采

我一直没能真正理解这句话的意思直到我和一个 gargantuan abyss of loose LEGO bricks. I gazed into the industrial bins of prismatic squares, and I quickly realized I was in over my head. 

我天真地和三个没有乐高经验的朋友一起参加了Skidmore建筑挑战赛. I was presented with a large tote bag and a scale. I was told to pick out 9 pounds 乐高积木. I went into LEGO selection with no plan of what to build.

我很快就开始明白，我是在挑那些剩下的东西 其他团队在策略性地挑选出完美的砖块后拒绝了 他们的愿景. 

只有很少的几块砖是灰色、砖色或绿色的 that essentially make up every building on Skidmore’s campus). 相反，我们找到了几个 金色石棺，各种星球大战角色，以及数百辆自行车和马匹.

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如果我们想要建立一个星系间的场景，一个对古埃及的致敬，或者一首颂歌 to various forms of transportation, we were golden. But to build something related 对火博体育来说，我们必须深入挖掘我们的创意 认为库. 

我花了大约五分钟的时间挑出可以做成一些的砖 看起来像火博体育大楼，我放弃了，只是开始鲁莽地挖 放弃. 

3:15 p.m. 

就在我开始感觉到乐高的红色从我的血管里涌出来的时候 我在这些真正的砖块海洋中摸索着，我意识到我的时间到了 select LEGO bricks was over. I had a full bag of stormtroopers and sarcophagi, the number on the scale blinked “9.00,” and my fate was sealed. 

亲爱的读者，我们不可能完全理解所采取的绝对数量 举起9磅的乐高积木，直到一个人面对一个巨大的手提袋呻吟 under the weight of seemingly innumerable bricks. However, the scale of the project 直到有人递给我一块2英尺乘3英尺的胶合板并告诉我 not to make the LEGO project bigger than that. I tried to hide my look of incredulity as I said to myself “Oh, don’t worry … it won’t be.”

4 p.m.

我为团队带了一张，穿过校园，被一大块 胶合板的重量和必须考虑如何处理大约2000 乐高玩具. 

11 p.m.
I went to bed to rest up for the long day of LEGO-ing ahead. 当我闭上眼睛， I saw LEGO bricks in my dreams.  

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星期四(比赛日)!)

10 a.m.
在一场冬季风暴之后，我们的团队有一个意想不到的免费晨间活动 自然决定推迟我们乐高杰作的规划和建造. 的 universe gave us a gift of extra time, and we did not utilize it. 没有 尽管截止日期即将到来，但在我们团队的群聊中，他还是说出了与乐高有关的话. 

5 p.m.
我离开了夜校，深吸了一口气，为即将到来的夜晚打起精神 开始了我勇敢的旅程，回到我的宿舍去拿乐高积木，把它们带到我们的 建筑的位置. 尽管 having no plans, no vision, our mixed bag of 乐高玩具, and no experience, we weren’t discouraged. We ordered pizza to fuel for the herculean 任务摆在我们面前，找了一间空教室扎营，并摆出一些乐观的样子 音乐. 尽管困难重重，我们还是带着火博体育主题的礼物走出了那个房间 乐高创造. 

7 p.m.
We finally finished meticulously sorting through thousands of 乐高玩具. 我们呼吸。 集体松了一口气，然后意识到分类是容易的部分. 的 time to decide what to build was nigh. At one point, a professor stopped by, and as 我的扬声器里响起了泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)的背景音乐，他拿我们的不足开玩笑 最优发展. 当然，他是对的. We decided to paint a miniature version of him and include it in our LEGO diorama. 

7:30 p.m.
We attempted to make the facade of 斯克里布纳尔出版社图书馆. We tried to use our myriad window pieces to make the Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences and its adjacent greenhouse. We quickly realized we had no idea what we were doing, 我们放弃了建造比矩形更复杂的东西的白日梦. 

Thus, we decided to make the glorified rectangle that is officially called 琼森塔 and to make it rainbow, due to our utter lack of JoTo-colored bricks. 因此,彩虹 乐高JoTo诞生了. 

8:30 p.m.
我们坚持. Nothing could stop our team. Armed with iPhone flashlights and dogged determination to get to bed at a reasonable hour, we soldiered on. 

9 p.m.
一层一层，一砖一瓦，彩虹乐高JoTo开始成形. 尽管 试着把这些层合在一起，然后意识到 它们的大小各不相同，我们设法找到了一座有点相似的建筑 JoTo. 

10 p.m.
We transported our LEGO building back to our dorm for the night. 然而，它正在寻找 有点令人沮丧. Rainbow JoTo was adrift amidst a sea of bare plywood, so we decided 为了使我们的产品更漂亮，我们把一些草和凯斯的小路涂成绿色 有点价值. 

10:30 p.m.
我们在威尔玛斯学院的几个同宿舍的同学碰巧经过公共休息室 were painting the plywood for our display. 的y took us to their dorm to show us their 乐高创造. 我们的下巴掉了下来. It was incredibly intricate. 他们继续大声地说 beat us in the contest, as they absolutely should have. No judge in their 正确The mind would ever doubt their obvious LEGO superiority. 

11 p.m.
Rainbow LEGO JoTo was finally done. I cleaned the paintbrushes in my bathroom sink, and started on the homework I had put off in order to build my 乐高创造. 

1 a.m.
睡觉,最后. 

星期五

11:45 a.m.
我们把彩虹乐高JoTo和我们的彩绘胶合板展示运到了案例中心. We 在最后一分钟做了一些“美化”(把我们能找到的任何植物乐高玩具扔到地上) painted grass) and stepped back to admire our deeply mediocre creation. 

3:29 p.m.
我们收到了一封令人震惊的电子邮件:我们拼凑的作品不知怎么得了第三名 place in the competition and would be displayed at the 难讲 with the regional CEO of LEGO. I quickly revised the original title of my essay, “Getting dead last in a LEGO competition: An epic saga.” 

我们庆祝我们的平平无奇的排名，就好像我们刚刚赢得了一枚金牌 奥运会. We didn’t win any prizes, but we had lots of fun playing with 乐高玩具 and listening to great 音乐.
 
当一切都说了又做了，也许真正的奖励是重要的创造性思维 一路走来.