The last six weeks have been filled with pizza, bad jokes, late nights, and the screeching sounds of metal being drilled as Connor yells, “DRILL, BABY, DRILL!” Six wonderful, tiring, build weeks have passed and we can hardly believe that we managed to finish the robot (affectionately named Dwayne ‘The Bot’ Johnson) and get him all bagged and tagged, not to be touched again until competition.
Every year the team completely takes apart the robot on the last day and reassembles it so that we make sure we know where everything goes and have the chance to remove any unnecessary parts, like bolts that may be rattling around inside. This year we were ahead of schedule so Dwayne was deconstructed on Monday and instead of just rebuilding him build team made some adjustments and improvements on particular aspects that should be to our advantage.
Tension was high as nine o’clock approached. LeFeber kept yelling out how much time was left; “FIFTEEN MINUTES!…… THIRTEEN MINUTES!….. SEVEN MINUTES!….” Minutes after nine, the last nut was tightened, the last tests were ran, and Dwayne was ready to be put in the bag.
I am so proud of all the team members and mentors who made this build season our most successful in years! I would also like to thank all the parents who donated their time, money, resources, and food. We couldn’t have done it with out you!
Don’t fret, it’s not over yet. We will meet again March 1st, in Le Feber’s room right after school. Everyone is expected, and required to come, and we will figure out our post-build schedule.