What does it mean to you, to work on the OpenPandora project?


Darkknight512

Active Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2010
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637
Age
30
Location
Canada
About 2 years ago, when I was working on a robot for a high school robotics competition, I dedicated myself to the project for 6 weeks. An intense build period. When you dedicate yourself to a project like this, you start to believe that this is the reason you are alive, you put your soul into every nut, bolt, or line of code on the project. You begin to go insane from pure excitement or just from the lack of sleep, but as you go insane, you become the happiest person ever, to dedicate yourself to something that you feel is important. Every triumph feels like a lift, one that propels you forward. As the competition neared, I worked as long as I could on the robot with the rest of the team, till the janitors pretty much came and carried us out of the school (1 AM in the high school halls). When time was up, our robot was in pieces, parts not working, code buggy, control systems crashing for no apparent reason, but it was time to pack the robot up to be shipped. On arrival at the competition with a 120 lb useless hunk of metal, almost a hundred teams in 2 hockey stadiums, we had our last chance to get the robot working before the qualification matches began. It was the hardest 6 hours of my life, we missed all the practice rounds, but finally got a fully working robot. However, only to climb a hill and fall and break the lexan sheet at the bottom of the robot holding all the electronics in the first match. I was ready to give up, what else could be done? Fortunately one team across from us gave us a hand and we somehow managed to fix the robot in 1 hour, before the next match.


By the end of the project, I was literally going insane. In the end, we did not finish with a great placement, but that did not matter, the project was the greatest fun I have had in my entire life.


The project was my life for 6 weeks that it went on, and I was the happiest person alive. It was the greatest adventure I have gone through in my life.


From the posts, videos and pictures, I can tell that you have dedicated yourself as much as possible to this project (same to the rest of the OP team). With the project going through hailstorms and hurricanes but somehow breaking through. What does it mean to you, to dedicate your life to an amazing project?
 
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Sorry, I know i'm not ED, but I had to chime in and say that those moments in life are the rewards for actually doing something you like and want to do. When you feel most alive is the response to those actions and choices. I've had my share of them and although they may or may not happen often, they are each just as sweet as the first time. What's glorious about them is they never cease for the person who lives who they are and acts accordingly. :)
 
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