Summer Sandwich

I started out on a five-hour drive up to Syracuse, New York with the Groton Rocket Club for The American Rocketry Contest finals. It was our first year as a team, and we were so excited to be able to participate, let alone make the finals. It was also my first time managing a Rocket Club, along with Dr. Kelly. We got to eat meals together, launch rockets over the rolling hills of Upstate New York, and then spend thirty minutes in a wheat field as we searched for our rocket after a solid launch. It was a great time, and I hope to continue our success into this coming year.

 

I think the middle of the summer was both strange and normal at the same time. I didn’t work a standard job like my other peers, unless you count mowing lawns in Queens. However, like most people, I took the time just to do what interested me. I got into painting recently as it applies to rocketry. Trying to emulate the style of my formmate, Mei Matsui ‘23, I started making homemade stencils and tried to more ornately paint my rockets, as she did for our beautiful competition rockets back at Groton. I got to work on my music writing skills, too, as I am cooking up an arrangement for the Maqupellas a cappella group. I was also fortunate enough to be able to travel down to Atlanta for an engineering camp, where I was able to get in touch with engineers from multiple fields, including aerospace. It was a truly incredible experience, where I learned a ton about engineering and got to work on other topics, such as my presenting skills and public speaking.

 

As of writing this, I haven’t added the last piece of bread to the sandwich, but I plan to spend some time with some friends, both from Groton and from home. I look forward to playing football with my friend Quinn from Long Island as well as exploring New York City with Zhining Zhao ’23.

 

Seems like a pretty yummy sandwich to me.