July 15th: Robotics John Deere Visit

Today was fine.

In the morning, I did something I didn't expect myself of ever doing again: boarding the vans of the high school I had already graduated from. Well, thinking about it now, since I'm mentoring, I might expect myself to do so, but I hope to get my permit soon, and leave a space for another student to experience the torments of the school vans.

There was quite a bit of traffic on the way there. The mentors discussed mentor things, while I, as a "junior mentor," didn't involve myself in their conversation. On the long van ride there, I looked outside of the window, listened to 2 minute of music, and scrolled on my phone. It was quite boring.

When we finally arrived, I was glad to have the chance to stretch out my legs for a bit. We unloaded the van and moved our belongings, including fancy table cloth, some give-aways, our awards, and a laptop which no one would be able to see the screen of because the canopy we brought had a top tarp that we forgot to bring. We also had to sign ourselves in as visitors of Blue River Technology.

After setting everything up and situating ourselves, as well as a short meeting to let us know how the day would proceed, the engineers at Blue River Technology, a subsidiary of John Deere, came and looked around at the robots. Most were interested in the robots, but few were interested in the teams. We managed to get a couple people interested in mentoring, which is exciting, and we're hopeful and grateful for their help.

After a hastily finished lunch and after packing up all of our belongings back into our van, we began our van ride back. As we were a bit more awake, our conversation was a bit more productive, reflecting on the event. After we were done, I asked them for advice, notably about driving, as I wanted to get my permit soon.

When I finally got home, I took a much-needed nap.

Thanks for reading,
Issac