[moogboy]

Well, on a humorous level I have become conversant with my tools, my teams speak in entirely proprietary made up terms that I cooked up, and I now never go anywhere without my slide on side shields.

On the serious side of things, I would say that robotics (FIRST, Lego, Vex) has saved my high school experience no doubt. Without the robotics programs my school offers I am not sure what high school would be for me, but I know that it would not be as great as it is right now. I was hanging out with a certain group of people who were not the best people, and things started to change for the better starting with an accidental run-in with my school's robotics team. I had gone to the Chem Lab to try and create a battery that fed back into itself, allowing more energy to come from one power source. (Never got anywhere past the theoretical stages, as I had no real knowledge of the innards of batteries or a deep understanding of electricity) But anyway, I walked in, and down this corridor was the physics lab, where I saw one of my classmates participating in Robotics. I went over there, and pretty much from that day forward I was at every robotics meeting helping out, working on robots, and guiding the younger folks towards productivity. It really saved me, and completely altered my life path. Before then I was planning on going to college just to get a fall-back degree so that if being a rock star didnt work out I could do something to stave off homelessness. But working with robots changed all that. I realized that I loved science the way I loved music. Now I am planning on studying Electrical Engineering, and I will probably double major at the very least. It all goes back to robotics.

According to the mentors, both of FIRST as well as Small (Lego, Vex) and Academy (my school has a 7th and 8th grade academy) robotics, I have a special way of helping younger members along. I do my best to bring the engineer in all of us out to help show people that 99% of the battle (and fun) is diving into the challenge head first and tackling the problems however each of us understands them. I also help the younger folk express their ideas. While it is not always appropriate to refer to allen wrenches as "the spinny spinny turny turny twisty thing that turns," at least I got the point across. The same goes for designing pieces of the robot. I know very well the feeling of not being able to explain what your idea for something is. My way around it is to make up words, use gestures, and whatever else is necessary to get the concept across. Thats what I want those kids to be able to do. I may look like a complete fool in the process, but Im okay with that.

That one day when I stepped into the Chemistry Lab was the day where my life's path took a different course, one that I will never regret as long as I live.