It took me a while to but I finally decided on this world record because I figured I could accomplish it. This influenced me to make decisions on stuff like: how to loosen my lips so I could hold that many straws in my mouth, what type of straws to get, how to record it if I beat the record to get it to Guinness world records, who would by my witness for beating this goal, and how could I make a good attempt to beat this goal. I had to create solutions for these such as: stretching my lips to try and fit around all the straws, just regular soda straws, just take photos of me beating the record (if I beat it), get someone either friend or family to watch me do it, and just go for it without thinking about the pain in my lips from the hundreds of straws stretching my lips.
Throughout the process of this I had to learn to understand the connection between these things and the goal of my project and how to keep these things in mind. It was very challenging at times to remember these steps and I would start complaining because my lips hurt from all the straws or that I kept thinking I couldn’t do it because I was running out of room for straws in my mouth. It was really hard to convince myself to keep putting more straws in and keep going on. I would feel incredible pain in and around my lips and lose my concentration and the straws would fly out of my lips, because my mouth would slip off of the straws.
In my research along the way I looked at lots of records and changed my mind quite a few times before deciding to try and break the record for most straws held in your mouth at once. Lots of the world records I looked at seemed rather easy but they turned out to be rather hard and a lot more difficult than I expected. For example: I looked at the world record for fastest time to eat 3 soda crackers which seemed rather easy, but it was actually rather challenging as soda crackers are really salty and are hard to chew fast and swallow fast too. Then I tried doing the record for most Ferrero Rocher eaten and unwrapped in 1 minute which was 8. This also seemed easy, but it was also very challenging as the chocolates were hard to unwrap and the little nuts in them made them hard to chew and swallow very fast. Then I had a brilliant idea, start a new world record! That way I would be guaranteed a spot in Guinness World Records. But, the more I looked into it the more complex I realized it was. First the Guinness team had to review and debate the submission, deciding if it was “record material” or not. Then they would have to interview eye witnesses about whether or not you actually did it (applies to all records, but Guinness is especially strict about new records). So I kept that idea for a while and thought of things that I could do but they either turned out to be too hard to do, or turned out that Guinness would not accept it as a record, therefore I wouldn’t be accomplishing my goal. I would just be doing something crazy for the heck of it, which wasn’t the point of my goal.
So I pondered on the idea of starting a new record but after I couldn’t really come up with anything with the help of anyone I decided to just look for a simpler, already existing, record to beat. So I kept looking and came up to the record of most straws held in mouth at once, which was 256 at the time but then moved up to 400 in a month. I thought I could still beat it though. Next I thought, “How does this relate to my area of interaction?” I thought about it and then it hit me! It related the same way as my whole topic how people used their ingenuity to beat records and achieve goals. It seemed like a pretty good connection to me.
So after a little bit I went out and bought 600 straws. So I could attempt to beat the record, hopefully by quite a bit too. I tried different exercises to get my lips ready over a little bit of time, and after each time I did I could fit a few more straws in. But after a while I couldn’t fit anymore in, no matter how hard I tried to I seemed to be out of room in my mouth. I tried for about 4 weeks on and off but I could not beat the world record for the life of me. After a while I decided I could not beat it and to accept defeat for now…
For my project I decided to build a tri-fold display board and in the center of it the current record holder with what other than… 400 soda straws in his mouth. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve my goal of getting into the world record book, but that doesn’t mean that my dreams have been crushed. I will try again eventually and hopefully next time I will succeed. For my research I was pretty general on world records, I researched about “How to break world records and the regulations”, “Interesting world records”, “Who holds the world record for most world records”, “What world records to attempt to break” and “What makes a world record.” My inspiration for the project was world records, obviously, and the world record I chose to try and beat in particular. I just really like world records, because they are really interesting and cool and are a very exciting part of life. I have always dreamed of being in the record book - it would be like being a celebrity, except you would partially be seen as a freak.
When it came time to make my tri-fold board I thought that I could put a picture of the current record holder on the board and cut out him mouth. I would then insert the record 400 soda straws into the whole. I then realized that it was hard enough to put straws in my own mouth and even harder to put them in the uncooperative mouth of a cardboard cutout. The concept was to make it appear that he had set a new world record. Fortunately, I was able to find a photograph of the record holder with 400 soda straws in his mouth, which I then used as the centerpiece for my project.
After that I put all the information I had collected around the centerpiece on the board. Even though I didn’t beat the world record and didn’t get put in the record book, I don’t feel like I was unsuccessful, or that I failed. People might ask why I feel this way. It’s because it is not about the destination which you reach, but about the journey you take to get there. Along this journey you learn your lessons and this is the important part.
Completing all this research and this project was an excellent learning experience for me. It helped me understand world records a lot more than I already did. It helped me understand why people chose to break world records, and why they choose crazy records to beat. I have more respect for people who beat these records, especially now that I know how hard it is to beat a record, and how much preparation you need to get ready to beat a record. It also taught me a lot about human ingenuity, and how much people worked for these places in the world record book. Next time I’m looking through a world record book I will probably not look at the records and say “Oh! That looks easy! I could beat that at anytime!” For now I realize records are a lot more challenging then the people in the world record books make them appear. They seem so easy, but they are really, actually, quite hard. I actually, really appreciate world records a lot more now that I understand them more. I don’t just say there stupid or cool, but I appreciate them for what they are.
Human ingenuity comes in many forms and, although at first glance it may appear that world records are spur of the moment and fun activities to be done in your spare time, this project has shown me that there is lots of thought and effort put into them.
