Tears of Joy – by Lauren Ferguson (12th grade)

Have you ever experienced that rewarding feeling of actually solving something on your own? After cringing in front of the computer screen for what seems like hours, you finally find the solution to your problem. RobotC seemed to only produce the dreaded red X, indicating something was wrong. I did not, by any means, consider myself to be skilled in coding. I had taken a few classes through The Hour of Code, and thought I was at least trained on simple tasks. Shouldn’t I be capable of simply turning on a green light by the press of a switch? Hunched over, sweat upon my brow, gathering the minute amount of strength remaining within my troubled mind, I typed, “turnLEDOn(LED1), new line,wait(3), new line, turnLEDOff(LED1).” Red X. My eyes bulged, my heart began to beat like tribal drums insinuating sacrifice. Why, oh green LED light, will you not turn on?My unsteady hands shook, perhaps I should check the sensors? Something must be wrong there. I reviewed the names of my sensors. There, before my eyes, LED was typed in place of the sensor. I cried. Amid the students of my engineering class, I cried tears ofjoy. The lights turned on and the motors began to spin within my brain, while these events were reflected unto my robot.