Monday Memory: High School Years

I grew up on what felt like a farm. At one point we had 5 dogs, 2 cats, 3 hedgehogs, 2 sugar gliders, 18 rabbits, 3 llamas, 4 sheep, 1 horse, 2 hamsters, 1 fish, and 1 hermit crab. All of these animals were pets, not food. I was VERY active in 4-H for 2nd grade until I graduated from high school. I raised and showed rabbits, dogs, and llamas. As you may be aware 4-H consists of more than just animals, I also did sewing, cooking, Know Your Government, and Mechanical Science 4-H.

You know those people who, whenever they see a need, they jump right in and fill it? That's my dad. We owned dogs, but there was no dog 4-H leader, so my dad bought some books, did lots of research and became the dog 4-H leader. The Mechanical Science leader retired, and since my brothers had been really active in that group, my dad decided he'd lead that group too. This is where ROVs come in. Instead of the usual woodworking, rocket building, or car maintenance type of club, my dad took the idea of ROV building from the museum my brothers and I had volunteered at and made that the focus of the club. During his research he stumbled upon a ROV competition. This, he figured, would give the 4-H club something to work toward. A tangible goal and a way to show off their final product.

Side tracking for a minute...my oldest brother, David, at about this same time, was working with a small group of students and a highly skilled mentor, on building an ROV for use at Battelle. This got my dad, and my whole family even more interested in ROVs.

http://www.ptleader.com/print.asp?ArticleID=12293&SectionID=10&SubSectionID=10 

Ok, back to my story. My dad, brothers, and a couple family friends (as a 4-H team) built a ROV when I was in 8th grade and entered in the MATE ROV Competition. I have always really like building things. One of my favorite toys from my childhood is Legos. I would still sit around building thing out of Legos if I had any in my apartment. When I was a freshman in high school, I wanted to join the team. We did fairly well our first year, considering our vehicle was made out of left over parts from the ROVs we built at the Naval Undersea Museum.

My sophomore year, we were no longer affiliated with 4-H, but had a private team. Our vehicle was still made of scraps, so we named it the P.T. CruiseHER. PT=Port Townsend, HER=Hand-me-downs, Extras, and Recyclables, so together it should like the car PT Cruiser. Get it? haha. With this ROV that looked like, honestly, a pile of trash and our bubbly team spirit, we won the  regional competition! Not because our ROV did everything it needed to, but because it did a tad bit more than the ROVs of other teams. And we had a great presentation, too. Winning this competition as a high school team meant we qualified for the international competition in Newfoundland, Labrador, Canada. 

There is a long story about the international competition and how that ties in to today, so come back next week for more of the story!