Maddi's Story (Team 2944)

I joined my school’s robotics team to impress some guy. Walking in to my first

Wednesday lunch meeting that day I had no idea what to expect. Even though I joined for the

boy I would stay for the people I met, the skills I learned, and the passion that emerged later on

that year. Build season started and the team put me to work, on awards. The team reluctantly let

me write the Woodie flowers award, an easy essay talking about the best mentor ever, Megan

McLean. I wrote the award, went to competition, and acted like a true team member. I learned to

be literate in the engineering language if you will, I learned about tools, programming, and all of

the FIRST acronyms. And most of the season my friends and even some people on the team did

not think I would still be here when I lost interest in that boy. Little did they know that by the

time I lost interest in him, I had found a new pursuit of happiness, Team 2944. One season later,

I am on our team leadership, I market our team brand and am now a Washington FIRST student

ambassador. I may not have fell in love with the boy but I fell in love with something that will

take me way farther in life, robotics.