Day 2 – World Robotics Competition.
Kiana Wright
Communication and people are NOT my strong suit. I’m typically horrible with both, so you’d be surprised with how I managed to get members from other teams to take a picture with me.
After the rest of our team arrived at the Convention Center, Mr. Hatcher announced a contest where (if we chose to participate) we had to take pictures with members from other teams around the world. There would be two winners: one for the best selfie with another team and one for a selfie with a foreign team furthest in distance from Albany. At first, my partner and I weren’t going to do the competition, but our competitive spirits weren’t having any nonsense.
We had another team member to join our quest for photos, but he later ditched us. Fortunately for him, it was for a drive team meeting, so he didn’t have to face my wrath. Anyway, with about 409 teams – from 24 countries and 42 states – and over 8,000 team members, my partner and I figured we’d have a good shot at winning the contest. There was just one problem: we’re both bad with people.
There was a tiny disagreement over who would talk to the members, but it was quickly decided that I would be the one doing the talking while she took the pictures. In the beginning, I was anxious about asking other team members for a picture and by the end…I was still anxious, but I had gotten better at communicating. We got to meet people from Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Columbia, China, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Hawaii. Thankfully, everyone was super amiable and generous about taking pictures with us.
Coming from Smallbany, Georgia, meeting members from other countries and being a part of all of this is astounding. It’s not everyday that you get to meet someone from China and trade social medias with a girl from Turkey. With a melting-pot of people together in one building, it’s a delightfully over-whelming event we’re experiencing.
During the Qualifying matches on Day 3 in Houston, we unfortunately lost our first match (28 – 85). However, we managed to come back and win our second match (58 – 42), third match (91 – 52) and final match for today (56-54). Currently, we are in 9thplace out of the 67 teams in our division and for a second-year team, this is astonishing! We will have five more qualifying matches tomorrow.
Later tonight, we will attend a Team Social and participate in activities with other team members. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make more new friends and learn about other cultures in the process.
Tune-in tomorrow for Day 3!
Kiana Wright is a sophomore who is in her second year at the 4C Academy. She is in the Information Technology pathway at 4C and has been a robotics team member since its inception. Ms. Wright is a sophomore at Westover High School and enjoys reading, writing and learning languages. She has a career aspiration to become a Psychologist.
