6 Years of First Robotics
It all started 6 years ago when I moved to Lincoln Park. On the first day, I got invited to join a FLL( First Lego League) team. In the past 6 years, I’ve designed, built many robots, competed in regional and state comptitions. Aside from winning countless medals, this journey awarded me with rich experiences in the filed of engineering and a group of wonderful friends. Here are some specical moments.
The Human Pyramid (FIRST Lego League 2016)
“Ryan, quick! Come on up!” Grant shouted at me, climbing on top of Peter. Our coaches, Mr. Goodall and Mr. Whitefield, had crouched down on each side, pushing up with their strong arms, building a perfect foundation. We had just won our First Lego League robotics regional competition. The winning teams were supposed to take a group photo in front of the FLL sign, and right on the spot, they decided to build a human pyramid. I was hesitant, freezing for a second.
“What’s wrong? Ryan, quick, we can’t hold it much longer.”
“Ryan, come on up!”
I was excited for the team, and I knew I should’ve hopped on, but I couldn’t move; my feet were glued to the ground.
“It’s ok; it’s ok, don’t worry about it. Let’s just take the picture.” Snap! The cameraman took our picture, me standing next to the human pyramid with a polite smile on my face. This was my first robotics competition. We won and were advancing to the state competition. Sure, I was happy, but still, climbing on top of Grant and his sister Grace’s back seemed like a daunting task. I was a little afraid that I would break their backs (or that I’d break mine), but I knew there was something else holding me back.
6 months prior, we had moved from the suburbs to Chicago. My dad had lost his battle to lung cancer. At the same time, Motorola, the company my mom worked at, was bought by Google and decided to move their headquarters to Downtown Chicago. We had to move. I didn’t want to move away from my neighborhood at all. I never wanted to leave my friends! I had no interest in moving to Chicago. But I knew there was no room for fussing. Albert Einstein said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” I hoped he was right.
I met Grant at Oz Park during my new school welcome party. He lived next to the park, and his home was 2 minutes away from the school. His two younger brothers were swirling around him while we were talking.
“I know everything about Lincoln. If you need any help, just let me know. Ignore my brothers; they’re crazy; they follow me wherever I go. Oh, my mom is our school’s parent counselor, she knows a lot about our school as well. My Dad works at Motorola…”
“Really?! My mom works at Motorola; that’s why we moved here!”
“I just learned how to code in Minecraft with ModBox!”
“Wow, I’ve only done Lego Mindstorms.”
“Oh! We just started a Lego robotics team, do you want to join us?”
“Okay!”
I couldn’t believe I had made so many connections with the first person I ran into in the new school. I latched on immediately. The robotic team wasn’t run by the school, but by two dads, both engineers. Three times a week, we gathered and tinkered with robots in Grant’s basement. Mr. Goodall was affable, witty, and a bit sarcastic, dragging all four of his kids into the robotics team. Mr. Whitfield was gentle, soft-spoken, always calm when talking to us, and reminded me of my Dad. These two families had been together for years. Although the whole team was friendly to me, once a while, I still felt like a plant dropped from a foreign land, just as I did when I was asked to climb on top of the human pyramid.
I stood there unmoving, my roots dug deep into the ground. I don’t remember what else went through my mind; I just wished my Dad was there. I grew up sitting on his shoulders and climbing on his back. If he were there, I would’ve jumped on without any hesitation.
Mr. Goodall stood up after taking the picture. “Good job, Ryan! Ready to win at State?”
“Yeah!” I answered as if nothing had happened.
“Our robot works great. However, in preparation for the state competition, we need to work more on team building. Are you guys ready?” Grant’s dad asked. We put hands together and shouted, “Yeah, we are going to the State!!!”
Part of the state competition requirement was to present our team’s “Core Values”. We started doing team building activities such as trying to build a bridge without being able to talk to each other, testing our trust in one another, and following teammate’s instructions to climb over obstacles with a blindfold on. Mr. Whitefield even loaded all of us onto his Tandem bike to see if we’d be able to ride it together. I felt there were invisible hands pulling our bonds of friendship tighter and tighter.
At school, Grant was a guide who showed me everything. The band and soccer team invited me with open arms. I was active in the history fair and chemistry contests. With my new friends’ help, some of the teachers didn’t even realize I was a new student at Lincoln! Life at Lincoln wasn’t as hard as I had imagined. The new community gave me a new home and confidence.
A year later, I was accepted into Whitney Young and Grant went to a private school in Boston. I joined the Whitney Young Robotics Team and again worked on collaborating and building trust with new friends. Each time at the club fair, I would use my own story to invite kids with no engineering experience and students new to the school to join the team.
At the Robophin’s first regional robotics competition, we were constantly working as a team to fix and improve the robot for each upcoming match, and by the end of the day, we had won the competition. There I was again, in the same place as I was 4 years ago, again, in front of the same sign, again, beside the same cameraman, again preparing for our team photo. This time, it was me who asked my teammates if they want to make a Human Pyramid. Yes, they all agreed without hesitation. I kneeled down. Then, the other members joined, and in the blink of an eye, we had built a human pyramid. This time, instead of standing aside, I was the part of the foundation. To my surprise, the teammates on my back didn’t feel that heavy, as if some magic power had lifted their weight off me. At that moment, I began to realize what my experiences had taught me: The first robotics team taught me to always adapt to changes and embrace strangers, and the human pyramid taught me to trust and to support each other.
FIRST Lego League 2017
FIRST Tech Challenge 2019
