Gniworg Pu

When I was 6 years old, my favorite breakfast was pancakes. I got to eat pancakes every Saturday and Sunday morning, provided I actually woke up in time (I wonder of such incentives would work now). I had to be the first to the table, because my Mom had a habit of burning the third and fourth pancakes. She complained that it was hard to compensate for the how hot the pan was, but sometimes I wonder if she did it on purpose.

At some point, probably by means of reading The Boxcar Children or some similar fantastic work of literature, I discovered the existence of chocolate chip pancakes. My 6 year old mind was blown, to say the least. Pancakes were excellent. Chocolate chips were also excellent. The two together surely formed the most delicious meal imaginable. When I proposed the idea to my mom, however, she was less than enthusiastic. Apparently pancakes were unhealthy enough as a breakfast, and having chocolate for breakfast was just not going to happen.

About a week ago I walked into CMU Cafe. It was a normal day but I didn't feel like getting my usual order. Looking over the menu, I spotted the breakfast section, which notes that all its entries are served at any hour. And right in the middle of the list I spotted one of my childhood dreams. The chocolate chip pancake. My food is prepaid for in a way that makes all menu items cost the same. There was absolutely no reason not to order it. So I did.

I once attended a CTY day camp in the summer before 7th grade. We got to choose one class for the duration of the 5 or so weeks. The actual name of the class escapes me, but it was some class that centered around engineering. One of my favorite projects we were assigned was to make a ball roll down a track in the most eccentric way possible. I thought the stuff from say, Home Alone, would be easy to make. Apparently it's not. Our track failed spectacularly, as the ball flew off when it was halfway down from the ceiling.

Trying that again was something I wanted, but I was given neither the time nor the materials to make it happen. As I moved forward I realized that engineering is not really about making balls roll along tracks in strange ways. Eventually, the memory kind of faded off into the distance, as these things tend to do.

That is, until last Friday when I found myself at a just-for-fun competition hosted by Robotics club. The goal? To make a machine that makes an ice cream sundae. Points were awarded for energy transfers, the height of the machine, the number of scoops it could pile on, magnet usage, etc. And the first idea anyone had was to set the machine in motion by pushing a magnetic ball down a wire wrapped around a giant PVC pipe.

In the end, the chocolate chip pancakes tasted horrible. The combination of chocolate chip and syrup made the dish far too sweet for my tastes. Similarly, the sundae-making machine crashed and burned when it was put on display. The ball flew off the track... again. Failure to realize childhood dreams? Depends on how you look at it.

Sometime in the near future, I want to record our SSBM matches and make a combo video out of it. A year ago, I'd only get to talk about how cool that might be, or watch other videos on youtube. Now I can steal a friend's VCR. My friend can borrow the necessary equipment from CMU TV, a video production club. I have a real chance at doing this.

Childhood dreams don't always work out the way you plan them. The ability to at least try them out is one of the things I love most about this place is that leeway and access to resources that I have. Truth be told, I probably could have done this before. I used lack of resources as an excuse to not pursue these outlandish ideas of mine. And yes, maybe it would've been better if the pancakes had been delicious, or the machine had worked.

It's not about being right or earning closure, though. It's about the freedom to try these absurdly foolish ideas. Utilizing this newfound freedom is one of my highest priorities. The best part is that it's not once-in-a-lifetime, like so much of college is. It's an attitude, and that lasts for as long as you really want it to.