Hi!

Why hello there! Vivian here updating. I’m currently a rising junior at the Bronx High School of Science. I joined the team during the beginning of my sophomore year because one of my closest friends (Shunella) had asked me to in my freshman year. The problem was that I never got around to going to one of the meetings. If I did, I would have found out how close knit both the FeMaidens and the SciBorgs are and how comfortable I felt being part of the team.

Although this was my rookie year, I felt that this was a life-changing experience for me. I walked into the shop not knowing what “riveting” meant but now, I’m being told that I’m really good at using the bandsaw. I would have never imagined that I would be so “into” this type of thing – robot-building, I mean. We left school when it was dark out and we came in on weekends! And when I finally saw our robot (Robert) move, I just felt really amazed that I contributed to a part of it.

Building the robot was only a part of my insane learning experience. I was forced to interact with people, ask them about their robots and learn from them. I think that was the greatest part about regionals because you could see the pride in their expressions as they spoke about something they helped to create successfully.

In addition to stepping out of my extremely safe comfort zone, I’ve also made friends that will most likely last me a lifetime. We’ve put up with each other for 6 consecutive weeks of chaotic robot-building. And as if that weren’t enough, we’ve had to room with each other for each out-of-state regional (2) all the while lacking a whole bunch of sleep. Trust me on this one: things weren’t pretty. Amazingly so, we’ve still managed to emerge with just a few bruises.

This was my first post (hope you liked it!) and there will be another one to come (most likely from me). But for now, I’m going to bed because I have a volunteer job I have to show up for tomorrow morning. Good night!

If you have the time, visit us @ www.femaidens.org !