February 22, 2024
GCIL is Mario Kart
Grand Challenges Impact Lab (GCIL) is a lot like Mario Kart. Right off the bat, you may be thinking to yourself, “Ridgely, how could a program designed to tackle grand challenges and foster social entrepreneurship possibly be compared to the classic Nintendo game Mario Kart?” Well, I’m about to make a boat load of analogies that I believe will make you see what I see.
First off, we start by picking our organizations. This is a lot like picking your character: you know a bit about what opportunities may come with it (like a specific car or bike), but you don’t really know what exactly you’ll be working on (like the stats of said cars/bikes). After some time working with your organization you start to decide what challenge you want to focus your efforts on (which is like looking at the stats of the vehicle). Eventually, you and your group settle on an idea, and now you are ready for the race.
Next, after you have some time with your organization, it’s time for the race to officially begin. The numbers count down as you pick your problem to attack and when the race has started, some groups shoot out fast with the boost of a good idea or the support of their organization while others get the little burnout and take a few more days to get some traction. Now that the race has begun each group faces the ups and downs of working on their challenging projects. Sometimes you have a breakthrough or some good ideas (which are like mushrooms or a gold star), while other times you have setbacks like a failed idea or sickness (which is like shells, bananas, lightning, falling off the map, etc.). We have to adapt to the challenges (like a moving racecourse), learn from setbacks (such as holding onto some bananas next time to block the shells), and continue making strides to our ultimate goal of tackling a grand challenge (like strategizing to get to that podium position). While the beginning can be challenging it is expected that there will be a lot of variability. You may be in last place for now, but there’s still plenty of time and opportunity to make it to 1st.
As we enter the third chunk of the program things start to pick up. This is like the final lap when the music gets quicker and the stakes become a bit higher. The days start going by faster and the adrenaline builds. If you are doing well, you are praying you don’t get hit by a major setback (like a blue shell). And if things aren’t going so well, you are grinding the work out and maybe hoping for a breakthrough (like a bullet bill). Things are exciting but also a little nerve-racking. You are racing for that podium with all you got.
This is the current stage which we are in, and I am definitely hearing that music speed up. I am excited as we work through all of our challenges, but I can’t help but feel a little anxious as time is moving so fast. As I enter this final lap of GCIL, I hope to make those strides to a favorable position while also enjoying the journey that is the race.
P.S. I hope these analogies made some sort of sense because looking back it all sounded a lot better in my head. Also, I apologize for the excessive use of parentheses and the word “like”; it just had to be done given my lack of methods for cleverly incorporating mass amounts of analogies into a short blog post.
By Ridgely
