Pandemic Inspiration

It was only three months into the pandemic, and the novelty of staying home had worn

off. At first, having seemingly infinite time to do what I please filled me with excitement and

wonder, but I realized something; I realized something, there was an unseen danger to the

pandemic, it pulls you in by offering all the time you need to achieve your goals, but at the same

time, it provides comfort that would make even the strongest willed individual say “I’ll do it

later” and with all the time in the world comes all the time to procrastinate. But I was not going

to fall into this loop of procrastination; I pledged that I would come out of the pandemic more

accomplished than ever.

At a young age, I realized that I wanted to be a robotics engineer, I had always loved to

create, and problem-solving came naturally to but it seemed that untimely events would thwart

any leeway I would make in this passion, but with the help of an unexpected pandemic

lockdown, I could start paving the way to my future. I studied codes and diagrams for hours,

motivated to learn everything I could about the occupation. My aspirations led me to believe that

learning everything about engineering would be straightforward. This presumption was false as

engineering is endless, there is always something new to learn, and any information can be

outdated in weeks. As daunting as this realization was, I already committed myself to going

down this rabbit hole until I was proficient in programming and could use microcontrollers to

control everyday appliances with ease, but I didn’t think that this was enough.

With my mind set on engineering and no interest in pursuing a sport as a career, there is

no reason for me to train my body for it but with this extra time and inspiration to use my time

wisely, it would only make sense to train for the possibility. I was lethargic about Sacrificing my
mornings to run for something I was indecisive about, but running despite these doubts trained

me physically and mentally for whatever I decided to do.

Amidst the pandemic, while the easiest thing to do would be to sit back and let the world

pass me by, I found inspiration. I utilized the pandemic to my advantage, and with the help of the

pandemic, I placed at the Junior Olympics for the 800m run and now lead the coding portion of

the Lutheran North robotics team.