Reflecting on Robotics

Before robotics started, I had to make an incredibly challenging decision. Most people don't realize how difficult this was for me, as well as how uncertain I was about the decision. If I was not doing robotics, I would be doing wrestling. I have wrestled for the past four years. The same weekend I started coming to robotics was the same weekend I would have to decide if I was going to do wrestling. Even though I had already hydrated, I never weighted in, so it never counted. But what would have happened had I not quit wrestling is not important because I decided to do robotics.
The reason I was open to changing activities was I had gotten to a point where I was not interested in wrestling. This may seem absurd because I had done it for four years, but over the years I began to lose interest. Not changing what I was use to would be the only reason to finish wrestling. However, I took the risk to try something different. I am not concerned that people would think less of me for quitting wrestling to participate in robotics. The previous year I had quit judo to do botball. I was already not taken very seriously in wrestling. I was always the one to entertain the team with my obscure remarks. One example of this is when coach Oney (who is a math teacher) told the team that our pushups were so off time that it looked like a sine curve. Jokingly, I replied, it looks more like a cosine curve. My robotics team would have fully appreciated the humor behind my comment.
The only thing that I miss in the robotics room is a team that is more focused. The wrestling room also contains individuals who lack focus, as well as a team that can also lose focus. But since our robotics team has not been around long enough, we are in the process of leaning how to lead. What makes focusing in robotics especially challenging, is that since so much has to be done, more people have to be responsible for getting something done. Because we are working on a group project and we are not training for a sport focused on the individual, when someone does not work, it hurts the team. Robotics, unlike wrestling, taught me to work independently without needing a whistle to tell me to start.
Side by side the two cannot be compared in the same ways. Wrestling requires commitment as well as devotion to the team. Robotics requires commitment because it takes up not just requiring more time after school everyday, but also on Saturdays and Sundays for longer periods of time. Wrestling requires mental strength to keep going. Robotics requires mental strength to figure out design as well as build a drive train that will keep going. At wrestling we learn techniques and do drills. At robotics we discuss strategy and design, and we use drills to build. But robotics always makes me leave a meeting wondering and thinking about the next problem we are going to solve.