The only time I won anything at school
During my school days I always considered myself as someone who possessed above average intelligence, and as such was too far up my own backside to see that in fact I was not as clever as I thought. However I did manage to be the best at something once, which whilst not strictly speaking a school project did take place at school.

The educational establishment at which I was educated at held a job fair thingymajig in which various employers would set up stalls and send leaflets and unlucky employees as a way to attract soon to be school leavers to their workplace. Local businesses, the police and even the RAF were in attendance, however I spent most of my time checking out a civil engineering company.

'So what has this got to do with a project you wanker?' I hear you mutter to yourself inside your mind. Well at the stall of this civil engineering company there was an activity for pupils to try out, anyone who was interested was charged with creating the tallest and strongest tower capable of securely holding a can of carbonated beverage (which must have been flat from the number of times it would have fallen from inferior constructions). The construction material? Those flexi-straws that you can buy in bulk for kids to drink sugary drinks through and good old sellotape.

Remembering how the triangle is a good shape to use when providing strength to a structure I got to work shoving straws inside one another and occasionally taping them together when necessary. In total I used a mere eight straws and a small amount of sellotape to build a secure plinth on which the can could proudly stand atop. It may not have been the tallest but this was judged not only the best construction built by any of the kids who attempted one, it was also the most materially efficient.

This rare flash of genius resulted in me both feeling vindicated and netting a £15 prize for my efforts. This was actual real money, not the book tokens they usually offload onto kids and to someone who had only done 14 laps around the sun this was an absolute fortune. In addition my architectural ability so impressed those attending the stand it helped me score some work experience with the company during the school's mandatory work experience week.
( R.Soul hmmm, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 18:55, Reply)