About ME

I was born and raised in NYC. Since I was a kid i fell in love with the city, and plan to retire there in the future. I went through the mess of a public school system that we had, and before I knew it I was in middle school, deciding which high school to go to. 

My older brother had taken some exam called the "SHSHAT," which was an entrance exam to get into one of 8 highly selective high schools in the city. Once it was my turn to bat, I had my eyes set on Brooklyn Tech, the largest high school in the united states. It had 9 floors, tons of gyms and pools, and most importantly a ton of shops to start working on projects. Nevertheless, with a 7% acceptance rate, the odds were severely stacked against me. Before I even began studying, this was about the time where I got my first job as an IT assistant, and it ended up taking up a huge chunk of my week to work on it.

Not deterred, I got to work. I spent months studying for the exam, taking practice tests, having my dad grade them and hand them back. My first few practice exams were atrocious, but I wouldnt let that stop me. I attended free tutoring sessions my school offered, and they helped a ton. After months, it was time to take the exam. I was sweating bullets the whole ride there, chewing at the end of my pencil to calm myself. I got to the exam hall, it was in the middle of summer with a broken AC in the classroom. More bullets were sweat, but less so from nerves. I was rather calm while taking it, like my pencil was moving without me even thinking, I had everything down on autopilot. After taking it, a few weeks go by and im antsy to know if I got in. A few hours later my mom calls me to my room, as she got an email with my results. I got in. I was so excited, I celebrated with my family all day. Little did I know the struggle that awaited me in the school. 

My first day I felt sick. Coming from a relatively small middle school of around 1000 total students, to a whopping 6,000 person school was a sense of whiplash I couldnt prepare for. Walking up to the building bright and early before the sun was up, all covered in scaffolding, I saw hundreds of students in the same boat as me, lining up to go to their first day of classes. I got this overwhelming feeling of sonder, as I saw the hundreds of people, thousands of homework assignments, parents yelling, friends made, friends lost, all for every single one of our paths to cross right here in this one building. I felt a little better after thinking about that, so I walked into the building. The entrance was even more indimidating than the building itself. The floors tiled, the ceilings seemingly gilded, and the pillars holding up this endless amount of weight.

Lost as ever, I eventually got to my first class 5 minutes late, which I was berated for obviously. After the class I would go to the auditorium and just sit, looking at everyone else as they seemed to just fit right in. Though I knew that it was everyones first day, I couldnt help but feel as though everyone already had it all figured out. They had their friendgroups, knew exactly where their classes were, didnt need to constantly check their schedules every 2 seconds. Even in college I still have this habit, it still sticks with me, like an impulse. Over the next few months I seattled in, met some people, started playing super smash brothers with them every morning before classes started, and all was great. This was a very gradual process. Sometimes I felt like I would stagnate, and stay where I was for the rest of my 4 years, but I got through it. 

In tech, you get to pick your "major" for the rest of your time in high school. This dictates what classes you will be taking for the rest of the year, and once you pick it, you cannot change it, you needed to stick it out. So I stared at the paper, thinking which major to choose. I saw robotics, chemistry, woodworking even. All of these caught my eye, but I kept glancing over at aerospace engineering. Its like someone drew a bunch of arrows that pointed directly to it. So, after not much deliberation, I decided to pick it. As it turns out, my whole friend group ended up picking graphic design, while I left to do aerospace. With how our classes worked out, we couldnt meet up in the mornings anymore. We tried staying until after classes sometimes, but we always ended up busy, and slowly we drifted apart. It was crushing to see my friend group dissappear, but it taught me to cherish what I had in each moment, and to not take things for granted. 

Now with the Aerospace classes, I found my people once again. This time we were taking much harder classes as a result of the major we picked. Despite the difficulty, I loved every second of them. The principles of engineering class I took had us working on a new project every month. Even though it was 7:30 in the morning, I was still excited to show up and work with my group. Every month we would all present our projects to the teacher, and he would grade us based on how well we did compared to the other teams. About this time I heard of this opportunity to take a few college now courses at this local community college, that was offering 2 classes in UAV rules and construction. I signed up in a heartbeat. The college was located right next to Laguardia Airport, and during class you could hear the planes flying overhead. There was a observation deck in the top floor I would frequently find myself in. Watching the planes take off, do a rectangular pattern, then land back down again was mesmerizing. The classes were incredible aswell. We learned about all the parts of a drone, how to construct the drones, the basics of soldering, the basics of electronics and flight computation software, an intro to a lot of fields. It was a great experience and I dont regret it in the slightest.