It’s amazing when somebody does something that seems to be beyond their abilities. When we make such an accomplishment of her own, it sometimes provides a source of pride that may last for many years.
A 10-year-old boy from Iceland had a very special goal of building a replica of the Titanic out of Legos. He didn’t just want it to be any replica, because Brynjar Karl Bigisson is obsessed with ships and he wanted to break the record.
Brynjar loves everything about ships and the Titanic just happened to be his favorite. He researched the ship online relentlessly and did everything he could to know about it. Eventually, he would be obsessed with building the ship.
According to Brynjar, he became obsessed with it partially because he has autism. He had always struggled to interact with other children so he preferred to play on his own and Legos allowed him the focus that he needed.
He said: “LEGO has been an important part of my life since a very early age. Because of my poor social and communication skills, I was always on my own, playing by myself, so LEGO bricks became my best friends. While building with LEGO, I was using and developing my imagination and creativity. I don’t remember feeling lonely, I was too busy building something.”
It wasn’t long before he was working on the Titanic replica of his own. He did need some help, so he asked his mother and his grandfather.
“Obviously, I was not going to build the 7-meter (26-feet)-long model all by myself and needed to convince some key people in my life to help me. My grandfather, Lulli, helped me to create special LEGO instructions on the real Titanic blueprints. My mother helped me to set up a crowdfunding page, so I was able to raise the money I needed to buy the LEGOs.”
He worked on the replica for 11 months, sometimes three or four hours every day after school. The replica began to take shape and eventually, it was complete. Let’s just say that it was more than what anybody could have expected.
This was more than just a project for Brynjar, it was a lesson in life. He said: “We know that if you are allowed to develop your skills through your interest, you can become stronger. I have had that opportunity and today there is nothing that I cannot do if I focus on it. This message is important for me to get across.”
He also said that if you want to achieve something great, you have to believe in yourself, have a good team, and never give up. He even put this into a TED talk, which you can see below:
