Everyone rushed to the bus as Griffith started to say “let’s go guys!” Our destination, University of North Texas. As we were heading to UNT, I did not know what to expect, but the thing I knew for sure was that I was excited. When we got there, the building was a huge maze. As we were walking through the hallway, I saw a distinct, but awesome helicopter that looked like it was taken out of a video game. It had four bright orange propellers. I asked the designer, “Does it work?” He replied with a huge smile on his face, “Yes, it does.” He said it in an accent that I did not recognize, so since I didn’t understand him, I said bye and just went along. Walking down the line of inventions, I saw things from a skateboard that was made out of fiberglass, to one of the most amazing things that I had ever seen. Having a steering wheel of a jet-ski, it had the shape of a rowing boat. It wasn’t like any of the other ones, it had tremendous solar panels that fired the whole boat. I couldn’t resist myself so I had to ask, “Can I touch it?” He replied to me with a question, “Would you like to turn it on?” When my ears heard that, I almost fainted. Turning the key, I felt the power that the boat had, it even made me start breathing really hard.

  Soon after turning it off, he asked me if I would like to know more about the history of it, so I gladly nodded my head. The project started off with an old boat that had a huge hole in the middle. So I asked them why they didn’t just get a better boat instead. He had the most humble answer,” You see, the thing is, we didn’t have enough money to buy a new one, every cent that was used in this project, was fundraised. We had to work hard for what we wanted.” After that, I was speechless. As he went on, I had to ask him, “So you guys started from scratch?” I guess he didn’t know what to say because he didn’t answer. I’m actually glad that he didn’t, if he was to answer, I don’t know what I would have said. As I looked around, I saw a photo album, it was called “The Journey.” It contained pictures of all their prototypes and all the struggles that the team had.

It ran through my head, I have to show my brother. As I scavenged for him, asking people if I had seen him, I finally found him by a snack stand. We walked together to see the Jet-Boat. When we got there, he wasn’t as amazed as I was, but since he noticed I was really happy with it, he just went with it. Having the history of all their process reminded me of what engineering is. Anyone can have a problem, being an engineer is finding a solution to your problem. Even if it takes you 200 tries. Due to engineering, the world is where it is today. It is an everyday use, you use it from your car, to your cell phone, to even your chairs that you sit on, and that’s what inspired me the most. Without engineering, the world would fall apart.