Hello we are the San Diego drive team for Team 842: Angelica Hernandez (driver), Yvette Torres (second driver), and Cynthia Botello (human player). At the San Diego Regional we were pretty confident that our robot was going to do good after seeing what it was capable of doing in Arizona . Although we would be an all-girls team, we still believed that the trip was going to be quite a success. And then it hit us.
Angelica: We arrived at the San Diego Regional and started building our pit as usual. Everything went well until the practice rounds started. As the driver, I was filled with an intense nervousness and anxiety stepping onto the field for the very first time. The bell rang and I managed to go forward with shaky legs. What was a practice round, seemed more of a final round. As I tried to score, the opposing robots aggressively attacked me. This seemed very awkward to me since I had not seen robots act this defensive in practice rounds. At the end of the practice round, I stood in awe at what we were going up against. I have to admit I was a bit intimidated and scared by what was happening.
Taking the robot through inspection was quite a learning experience as well. It seemed like the tech inspectors were trying to make us feel stupid or simply embarrass us by asking us questions that we couldn’t thoroughly answer. As Cynthia said, “ the inspection made me feel stupid, stupid, stupid, more than I already felt!” We knew for a fact that this hadn’t happened in Arizona. It got to a point where Angelica couldn’t take it anymore and had to step out.
Yvette: Having gone to three regional competitions I was able to observe how it was so much different at the San Diego Regional. I had done most of the electrical on the robot so I was at all three inspections to answer any questions. I was nervous about the inspection, scared that I wasn’t going to be able to answer the inspector’s questions but the inspection at Arizona went smoothly and pretty quick. The same went for Las Vegas it had been through inspection two times already so there was not much to change or alter. At the San Diego Regional I expected much of the same but that was not the case. I felt as though the inspectors were quizzing all the girls about the robot, what everything was, where it was connected, etc.. Quite a few girls were involved with the construction of the robot as I had done the electrical but we were not as knowledgeable as the guys in that area of the robot. After all it was our first year, we were practically a rookie team.
Angelica: Also, during the qualifying matches, as the driver I felt like the other drivers in our alliance wouldn’t really communicate with me, or if they did, it was very minimal. I found myself asking many questions to which I received a short response. This was also true during the actual matches as well.
While a lot of the males on other teams were very polite to us, there were also some that just liked to pick on us. For example, there was one guy that started hanging out in our pit to just talk about how his team was going to beat us “so bad” and warning us to watch out. We knew he was saying these things to try to intimidate us but his comments were very irritating. This same male said a comment that simply shocked Angelica. While she was looking at the team rankings on the monitor, he was standing right behind her and right when our team number appeared he blurted out “ ouch, 43, that’s harsh!” with a big smile on his face. This made her so angry but she simply turned around and said, “You shouldn’t be making those comments because they’re not graciously professional!” and walked away.
It may have just been us, but we felt kind of ignored by the judges. Having experienced the attention we received in Arizona made us wonder why we didn’t have more judges asking us questions about what we did outside of FIRST. As we remember, all the questions they asked were about our robot and not about anything else we did. It didn’t seem like the judges took enough time to talk to us. Again, these are only observations.
Angelica: One thing I did learn was how stressing it is to be the driver. If the match goes wrong everyone immediately turns to the driver for answers. I never thought how difficult it would be to drive knowing that all of the pressure is on you. I learned to appreciate how well drivers operate because now I know that it isn’t as easy as it appears.
Cynthia: This regional wasn't just a FIRST Robotics Competion. For me it was a life changing experience. I have built more confidence and discovered a potential that I didn't think I had. I have learned that we can all try new things becuase if you don't try you won't know what you're capable of. I am also glad that there were people encouraging and telling us how great it was that we were doing such thing.
Perhaps the most important thing that we learned was to overcome our fear. Coming from a Hispanic family where women are always put down contributed to us always having to step out whenever something had to be fixed on the robot. Now, we have more confidence about our selves and have realized that we can do anything we set our minds to. We will never forget the San Diego Regional becuase it has certainly changed our culture.
