How Many of These Posts Am I Gonna Have to Make?

No, no, I'm not dead; just incredibly busy and a little stressed. I guess it's been over a year since I've last posted. Well...

For starters, I am now a senior in high school, and still take part in my robotics team. We've been doing really well recently, and I am super stoked for 2021, no matter what happens! Final, season gotta go out with a bang. 

As most of my few readers know, 2020 was a bust and it was a rather painful experience for me and some of my teammates. We started the season well; we had the resources we needed and the experience we desired. We went on through the build season, building a competitive robot that certainly had a lot of potential if we made a few tweaks here and there. But then our DE rolled around, and in my opinion, I kinda screwed the pooch. 

Let me start out by saying that the qualifying matches had its ups as well as its downs. Due to this, we did not qualify super well, and in consequence, we were picked by the eighth alliance. Now, do not get me wrong, these two teams were awesome, and we had actually won our most recent offseason event with one of them! But as the eighth alliance, we had to face the number one seeded alliance there first. 

The quarterfinals started off poorly when we lost control of the robot due to an unsecured ethernet cable. We quickly identified the issue, and decided to stop our systems checks, as it seemed to only be hurting us. To the amazement of the entire event, we won the next match against them, becoming the one and only alliance to beat them at that DE. The record was now 1-1. We proceeded into the next match with our heads held high, and excitement burning in our stomach. I was ecstatic, much like the rest of the team, but my celebration only lasted so long. We began scoring early on in the match, and we had a fantastic outlook. I of course did not know this, as I was driving and not focusing on the score. 

And then it happened. I remember it as clear as day. The Infinite Recharge game has a strict climbing rule; the rule states that you may raise your climber up in the end game, and if you raise it any earlier, you will be dealt a penalty of 15 points. 

And of course with me being the stupid klutz that I am, I raised it too early. This certainly wasn't the first time this happened for me, which made this that more depressing. Now here's what makes this the most sad: we would have won that match by one point if I did not commit that violation. One point. Let me be clear: one point. The first alliance versus the eighth alliance. This would have been the upset of the season! Now surely there were other factors at play. For example, our captain, our defense robot, received a 15 point penalty as well due to an illegal hit. But because I am who I am, I naturally placed the blame completely on myself and lost a lot of self-confidence. Still working on it, but I'll talk about that later. 

So that was the DE. Now, I'm sure everyone around the world knows of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the entire season was cancelled to prevent jeopardizing the participants, judges, and spectators. 

However, FIRST Robotics Competition did indeed decide to replay the game in 2021. My senior year. A game that brings back awful memories, and simply a game that I did not enjoy as much as the years before. 

Over the quarantining, I of course had to keep up with school work and maintain my grades. The robotics team decided that it was appropriate to halt meetings for some time, although we did resume eventually. One of the things we must cherish is the ability to actually work on our robot however; many teams could not and still cannot access their robots to due online schooling, or the lack of school-supported extracurriculars. 

We decided to rebuild the robot, almost from scratch. After a long, gruesome couple of weeks, a few students, including myself, finally pulled a design together and began planning and executing. We are still tweaking this robot as of now, and are closely watching FIRST, as they have begun to release expectations for the 2021 season. As of now, they're looking at an online competition that also allows students who may not have access to their robot to compete. It's certainly different and disappointing, as the hotel and overnight experience makes it that much better! My team is still unsure on whether we should participate, as there is currently a $2000 registration fee.

Anyway, I'm sure most readers know this, so let's get back to the questionable programmer here. First off, my future!

As a senior, it is time for me to select my next path and my goals. What have I decided so far? Well.

I have already been accepted into what is currently my number one school, Michigan Tech. I plan on applying to Penn State in the next few days, as I'll receive my most recent SAT scores on Friday. I still have to decide if I want to leave my home state of PA of course. 

I have also chosen what I will be studying in college. I will be majoring in electrical engineering, and minoring in mathematical sciences. Why? For those who do not know, I love math. I love it because it takes away whatever is on my mind and forces it to focus. Basically, it clears my stressful and saddened mind. I don't want to become glorified IT or deal with data manipulation all day long, which is why I do not want to go into computer science. Computer engineering? Looked at it, and frankly, I think I would enjoy more careers in the EE field than the CS field, so I figured, why not go all in?

So that's my future as of now. Still partake on my high school's cross country team and the track and field team. I unfortunately had to stop XC last season due to bacteria and damage to my liver. Lot's of antibiotics and medicines have got me up and going again however. But, because of a multitude of issues including my liver, the pandemic, and a focus on robotics, it pains me to say that I have gotten really out of shape for XC. It is rather disheartening to compete poorly in comparison to your younger self, and this makes my life this much more stressful. That being said, my last meet is tomorrow (yes, it's 11 o'clock, and I'm still up before a meet) so I am happy to get this off my plate. 

I don't know if I ever discussed my current employment. Well, I am currently an assistant supervisor at a local amusement park, and I love it there! The benefits and the pay are great, but the coworkers are even better! The customers however, well, I won't talk about them. 

And lastly, I have my drivers license test this Friday! I am super excited, apart from one concern: parallel parking. I personally feel underprepared, although I have done it before. This has made me very stressful recently, and I wish I could just keep practicing. I'll probably skip robotics tomorrow to practice, but we'll see what happens. 

Why did I come back to write this you may be wondering? This blog offers me a place to "talk" to someone, which is really comforting. At school I am a bit socially-awkward, and don't like talking to people. I typically feel like I'm being judged all the time and that other kids think I'm an annoying dork. So, I try to talk as little as possible, unless I'm in a comfortable environment. Robotics has been becoming more and more dramatic as well, which is very, very frustrating. Personally, I don't believe that the robotics team is the place to discuss relationships or attend for social hour. You wouldn't attend soccer practice just to talk, would you? Actually, I hate soccer; make it football instead. Anyway, the point still stands. This has also made it harder for me to talk to people, as the people here aren't the same people that used to be here one or two years ago. It's odd trying to relate to them especially when your views on things are so different. 

So, to sum that up, I returned to this blog because I wanted to talk to someone about my stresses. I would be shocked if anyone gets this far into this however, or just simply reads any of it!

So, my schedule? Well I'm gonna try to post at least once a week now, because I think I'm finding it rather helpful and relaxing right about now. 

I also plan on posting my journey through college here!

I hope this post doesn't look like a pile of words on a page, and you can instead understand what's happening with me and in me. 

Well. 

Here's hoping to another week! 

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." 

- Albert Einstein