there was an FLL team in my middle school, but from the time I was 10-13 I couldn't care less. My dad (
Don Rotolo) was (and still is) a mentor on the district robotics team and tried to get me to show interest. We built and programmed a Vex robot when I was 12 and I watched all of the team's competitions on the live webcast (even though I had no clue as to what was going on). Come freshman year, my dad tells me I should come to a meeting and I laughed- I was a cheerleader and I didn't think robotics would be ANY fun. Grudgingly, I attended a new members meeting and agreed to volunteer for Pascack Pandamonium, an off-season event we held that year. I had fun, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to the team. Within the first week of build season, I found robotics after school to be the best part of my day. I made tons of new friends plus I was having a blast working on the mechanical subteam (wooo power tools!
). Now, robotics is definitely the best thing that's happened- I know what I want to do for the rest of my life, I made some of my closest friends, and I'm constantly exposed to new experiences that you just won't learn in a classroom.