I for one welcome our robot overlords

You know how kids have minds of their own? I wanted Katie to play clarinet, and she chose flute. I wanted OJ and Paul to play baseball--and they did for a while and were good at it, but eventually moved on to other things. I wanted Hayley to play clarinet too and try out for drama. She did play clarinet for a bit, but then the weirder bassoon called to her (and now she wants a mandolin or a ukelele or both) and dressing up appeals to her, but not the stage.

I don't mind that the kids ended up doing different things than what I would have chosen for them. I wouldn't have minded if some of them didn't chose to join band (and one of them didn't). I like to see them doing what they enjoy. I learned to like cross country meets and track meets. I enjoyed seeing (and hearing) Katie excel at the flute. I had a good time with Hayley at Meta Con. OJ always has tales to tell of his discing or paintballing adventures.

So Matt. I have encouraged track and field as an option for him in his high school years. Also drama. He has the voice and the ability to act, and the lack of fear of being in front of people.

But he decided to go along with his friends and try out for the high school robotics team. They build robots. (The team is called KING TeC and is ranked #8 in the world. WORLD, yo)

The try-out involved an interview with a panel of team members and coaches. Our neighbor (who is the high school chemistry honors teacher and advisor for the robotics team) was in on Matt's interview and said he interviewed well. The other part of the try-out was--get this--building something out of Legos. Hello! Matt LOVES Legos! He has asked for Legos for Christmas every year of his life since he could talk. Matt said that he was told to build the fastest machine in the world and then explain it. So he said he built a vehicle of some sort with a stegosaurus as the driver. Why the stegosaurus? Because he's Matt and has to be weird.

He was all low-key about the try-out. I can't tell if he really wanted to try out or if he was just going along with his friends. But he texted me this morning "Made it into robot thing."

So we have a new adventure to look forward to, and it's one I never thought about before.

As a side note: KING TeC team members wear maroon satin capes and either crowns or Viking helmets. And Matt and I saw their award-winning frisbee-throwing robot at the state fair this year with its first place ribbon.


Comments

Jenni said…
Not computing. Not computing. Ha ha, Just kidding. That is really fun! I hope that that can lead him on to life skills that can get him places in ... life. He may be an engineer (not the train driving kind, either). Always interesting what they will do. I never imagined Morgan to take up the tuba...
Mike said…
What does the 'Robot' letter look like on the varsity jacket?
Jen said…
That's amazing! I never would have pegged Matt for this line of work, but my nieces and nephews are always surprising me. I can't wait to see what this new venture brings forth for Matt.