College Essay (CommonApp)

Much of my ambition originates from my attachment to revolutionaries. Although now I prefer chanting 80’s rock at my windshield on my way to school, the works of Zimmer and Giacchino guided my early perception of innovative “greatness”. That’s right! Movie soundtracks.

The crescendos of Star Trek’s theme (2016) bolstered my confidence before exams while the eeriness of Interstellar’s theme carried me through long road trips… sweeping me into their revolution of How’s and Why’s… molding me into a dreamer: A title exemplified as I scavenged through the sprawling manuals, various electronic components, and rough sketches that engulfed the floor below me.

It was my first robotics meeting and my mentor, upon reaching out to him to start the team, allowed me to occupy his backlot garage to brainstorm designs for the coming season. Being subdued by the Florida heat and confined to your own ideas would certainly be a nightmarish summer for some, but I loved every minute of it. Crafting together reference materials, I spoke of designs for mecanum drives and complex actuator “arms” before my mentor quickly reminded me, “Nobody comes in the middle of the night and ‘fairy dusts’ your ideas into reality”. Having looked back on this lesson so many more times in my life, I now recognize this moment as a fold in my story… a change agent to no longer blindly follow the rhythm, but rather project my own lyrics upon the world.

Over time, I realized that every component, every tool, and every wire of our design was contingent on our willingness to network and fundraise. With persistence and humility, we visited nearly every county engineering firm to pitch the necessity of our robotics voyage.

The garage expanded in parallel with our ambition. The explosion (figuratively) of power tools, test benches, and robotic configurations served as a testament to the community trust we slowly earned. The night before our first competition, I looked over the completed robot with utmost awe. Win or lose, such a relic still served as an awesome reminder of the initiative that conformed chaos and brought us all together.

Three years and many competitions later, I stood in that beloved garage for the last time. My family was moving away from my hometown and I had to leave behind the robotics team that had become such a focal point in my life. Given a month’s notice, my priority became passing on knowledge. In every meeting from that point forward, I exhausted myself explaining every detail of our operation. From teaching how to design CNC aluminum plates in Fusion360 to the basics of OpenCV image-tracking, my life was once again plunged into chaos as every hour was a precious opportunity.

At the final meeting of my robotics journey, having said my goodbyes, I stood under the arches of the garage conflicted. Even though I’d worked tirelessly over the last month, I still couldn’t shake the thought that I was letting down the very people that had defined my aspirational curiosity.

However, thinking back to the beginning, it finally dawned on me. The profound change I was looking for couldn’t be found at any particular point, but rather cumulatively in my character. My naive passion was replaced with an acute focus on mentorship and bettering my community. My quiet idolization was replaced with a confidence that fueled my future ability to lead lectures on React Native Firebase Integration in Harrison and pursue scientific research at FGCU. For the team to succeed, I needed to trust in my community to learn through the same creation that inspired me.

As I learned to accept this reality, appreciation overwhelmed the emptiness of leaving as my face soon echoed a soft smile. In the forward-thinking spirit of REO’s “Roll with the Changes”, I turned my back on the garage to seek out new chaos elsewhere.