preview

Narrative Essay On Scambler

Decent Essays

Three. Two. One, Launch! Our car kicks upwards, then tears down the track, threatening to flip in its maniacal speed. I’m competing in “Scambler”, an event at the national Science Olympiad competition where I build a car that gets an egg as close to a wall as possible and as fast as possible. A meter from the wall, the car hits its breaks, but it keeps moving, leaving black marks in the floor as its wheels grind against the ground. And yet, a hair’s breadth before the wall, the car stops. The run leaves the egg 5 millimeters away from the wall in under 4 seconds. Surely good enough for top 6 in the nation. A harsh voice cuts through my haze of euphoria. “What’s this?” the event proctor asks. I look down, but see nothing. The proctor tiredly recites, “These rules say no part of the launcher may touch the ground after launch if it wasn’t touching prior”. I almost feel my top 6 finish crack against the wall my car had just barely missed. The proctor is right, some string that had been held taut by the car prior to launch now sagged onto the ground. These sorts of building penalties were called “tiers” since they put you in a lower tier than anyone who hadn’t made the same stupid mistake. I’d be lucky if I finished in the top 40. …show more content…

I think to myself that she’s clueless. 40th in a single event is enough to tank the whole team’s overall ranking down 10 places. I’m no engineer. I should never have taken on Scrambler. Then I hear “Air trajectory was incredible Kevin!”. The same team member looks at me with wide eyes, praising for the event I’d competed in just before coming to test for Scrambler. “Sophia, I tiered in...” I start, but Sophia won’t have any of it. She cuts me off, eagerly responding, “Scrambler is a hard build, but you’re the best builder we have, and your other events went perfect”. That’s ridiculous, I think. How could the Best Builder get tiered? How could the Best Builder make such a stupid

Get Access