They are the only ones who drag on me. I am the only one who feeds them. Six strenuous weeks with endless tasks and deadlines to build. Six who appear once every year. Six with one gigantic goal. From the shop, we see students welding the robot, but Adam types on his laptop, working on raising funds.
Their value goes unnoticed. They stress and motivate. They get shorter and never longer and strip away meaningful ideas, sacrificing the robot’s quality and the organization of the team. This is how they feed.
They thrive off our failure, but innovation and success eats at them like an acid, making them less of a threat. Tick, tick, tick, they say reminding us of the inevitable deadline. They count.
When we win the arduous battle against time, when we all take a well deserved sigh of relief. When all has been done, I press the reset button in my mind and blink my eyes. Six who have challenged me. Six that will always be remembered. Six that have changed who I am.