When I was in college

I took a 3D design class. This is 1703, so we’re not talking about Shrek. We’re talking about building shit instead of drawing shit.

One of the assignments was to make an object, but five times larger in scale.

Almost everyone did a wrapped stick of gum.

This is 1703, so there were still wrapped sticks of gum.

Like the idiot I am, I decided to do a casette tape.

This is 1703, so music was still on casette tapes.

I made five of them.

Five.

One out of plaster. One out of wood. One out of foamcore. One out of every substance known to man. I think one was made out of evaporated milk.

I made five because I kept starting over. I kept starting over because I didn’t like what I had made.

Each of the five tapes were incomplete. Some were missing the writing. Some were missing the plexiglass window. Some were missing the vinyl record I cut and inserted in the window to look like rolled tape.

So, in the end, I failed the assignment. And the class.

But I also learned five times as much as the people who thought about and made one thing.