[NorviewsVeteran]

My first exposure to the organization was when I was 7 or so, it was the game with the purple playground balls that fell from over the driver stations. My mom called me into the room where she had the TV on the channel that was showing a regional, "It's robots!" I went in, saw the kids driving them and said, "neh, they're not fighting." (Yes, I'm guilty of it)

In 5th grade, I got picked up from school to go over to my brother's middle school where they had an FLL team (I had no idea what was going on in there), but I hung out with them, helped build their field, and ended up going to a competition with them (they didn't do too hot).

I went to a different middle school, one without a team, but there was a robotics class, so I was set. In 8th grade, I was interested in 3D animation and such, so My mom took me over to Norview, where my brother was in their FRC team. I didn't watch him, though, I hung out with Paul Jones (he goes to JMU now) but I gravitated to the shop where they were building stuff (I grew up on Legos). Not only that, but the robotics class they had there used VEX, and at some point I picked up the controller for one and was instantly deemed a driver (too bad I wasn't a high school student) because I was carefully driving the bot through table legs, over shoes, between legs, etc.

Over the course of it all, I was in the 'gifted' program (was mysteriously dropped from the list), dabbled in TSA (wasn't thrilled with the leadership at the school), and offered a spot at the technical center. You won't hear me complain the one I stuck with. My mom brought up the interesting point that I've done more leading than the LCSE (Leadership group at Norview) and we both thought that's pretty funny.