Fantasy

                 

             Throughout my life I have been exposed to countless genres of fiction. I have experienced a plethora of them, from Sci-Fi to Historical fiction, but one has always caught my eye more than any other: Fantasy. Before you call this a nerd rant and move on, take some time and look at it from a different perspective. I don’t see this as an escape from my life, as I love the current world I live in. That being said, we don’t have fire spitting dragons and enchanted swords in this world. I am fascinated by all the different ideas people have come up with involving heroic tales of a knight saving a princess or a crusade for a holy artifact, involving things that are inspired by our world, but are not found naturally throughout our planet.

The first taste of Fantasy was from movies. I have always loved The Lord of the Rings movies, even when I had no idea what was going on when I was younger. One ring that had the power to corrupt minds and turn people invisible was far beyond my comprehension at the time, but has altered the way I look at things years in advance. Now when I see rings with symbols, swords, anything medieval or the sort, I get severely intrigued.  I’ve never done any deep research about medieval weapons or anything like that, but whenever I see something similar it immediately becomes my number one priority; my subconscious must have latched onto this other world.

                

I know that there are literally thousands of books out there about Fantasy, but I have yet to read one that has caught my attention. Usually the wording is far beyond what I’m willing to read at that moment or the plot is confusing, I find myself having to re-read entire pages of these books because my train of thought is at a different station. Don’t get me wrong, I know these books have had huge impacts on the movies and games I play/watch, but the technological era has killed the luster of this form of fantasy for me. I really wish that at some point in my life, I can go to a place remote of technology and learn how to respect this medium of my favorite genre.

                

Recently (within the last five years) my Fantasy attachment has lead me somewhere else: video games. It’s not like I strictly play fantasy games, but whenever I do see one I’ll usually check it out. The feeling of controlling a knight clad in full armor while wielding a great-sword with two hands is an experience I could never fully describe, it’s amazing. It feels like you are actually there, protecting the righteous and deciding what is good or bad. It’s a level of control that you just can’t have in fantasy movies and definitely can’t have in the real world. It allows you to step into this other place, and experience a different culture without even having to leave your house. These kinds of games have formed a better human nature for caring about others humans and the world than real life lessons have. I’m not sure if that’s the intended purpose, but these games, movies, and books have taught me to be a better person. So like I said earlier, I haven’t used fantasy to escape reality, fantasy has helped me care for my reality.

Mechatronics, Why do I care?

Being in AP English, we all know that college work can be difficult. We are taking college courses while still being enrolled in high school. Being in Trig/Pre Cal and NAVIT alongside this basically means that I, myself, am more of a college student than high school student. You may ask me, “Golly gee Frankie, why would you do this to yourself?” The answer is simple, I wanted to save money. Every single college credit I earn right now, is free time and money next year. Sure this may drive me insane, but I feel that in the long term it will help me substantially. I am working for an Associate’s degree in Mechatronics, which is a hot field to be in nowadays. I hope to use the Associates degree as a foot stool to get a Bachelor’s, which is required for most of the positions. The world needs mechatronics engineers so that we can lift ourselves into the electric and mechanical utopia of the future that everyone wants.

The Google definition of Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineering that includes a combination of systems engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, telecommunications engineering, control engineering and computer engineering. Companies would rather hire someone right now who know a moderate amount of each of these subjects than one person who specializes in one. The average pay in the US for a Mechatronics Engineer is around $88,800 a year, which is absurdly amazing.

The work I do at NAVIT isn’t too hard. Everything is either common knowledge or written down in a book for you to read. The real difficulty is that NPC’s Mechatronics program is barely starting up, so I will not get the full experience as someone five years from now. Although this might affect how I perform out in the field, I will get a jump start into the job world before these more educated students can, meaning I have a chance to get the good job before they do. Hopefully everything will turn out all right, my instructors keep informing us that there are plenty of jobs out there, but you never know.

My role model that inspires me to carry on my learning is a man named Elon Musk. Elon is the CEO at Tesla and Space X, two companies that incorporate everything I will learn in NAVIT (plus some) into their designs, revolutionizing the field by introducing concepts no one has ever thought of before. Recently, Space X tested a rocket that was able to fly into space and land; this is a remarkable step towards space travel, all thanks one man and his team of experts in the same field I hope to land in.

All of these colors and I still couldn't paint a future

All of my life I have been absolutely fascinated with art. Paintings, statues, everything and anything that an artist had poured their own blood, sweat, and tears into. When I was little, anytime I could draw, I WOULD. I’d grab my box of sixty-four crayons, sit down wherever I found comfortable in my grandpa's house, and I would UNLEASH my inner artist. My creations would range anywhere from stick figure comics, on the spot mythical creatures, scenes from movies or games I had just witnessed; Nothing could stop this little boy from spreading his imagination all over the place.

This is the point where the story gets kind of sad: I lost it. I lost my love for creating fabulous worlds with the tips of my color sticks. My stick figure comics became poorly drawn in my eyes. My mythical creature I would come up with became stupid. I tried desperately to love my own work, but I HATED it. I saw how people around me could do amazing things, while I was still in the corner drawing stick people and “Eiknarfs”. My art teacher (not mentioning any names cough cough Mrs. Newberry) was my worst critic. She scrutinized any and all of my creations, slowly killing the beautiful artist that I was. I would draw a horse, she would say the mouth was too big. I would draw one of my “Eiknarfs”, she would ask me if I was in second grade. Nothing would please this woman unless it was exactly how she had picture it, which was almost a polar opposite of what I enjoyed making.

One of my greatest friends I had in Junior High was a guy names Lorenzo. He was one of the people that was amazing at drawing that made me second guess my art. He could draw realistic people, stick figure comics that were twenty times as funny as mine, he could even draw amazing mythical creatures. Sure it put me down in the dumps seeing how good he was, but he was also an inspiration. I would strive to draw as well as him, although it was usually to no avail. We drew so many stick figure comics, and even though I thought his were far better than mine, he would say mine were just as good. That right there is how everyone should treat everyone. Instead of telling someone they’re version is wrong just because it doesn’t match yours, let them know that they gave their best and that they are amazing human beings. Life is way too short to demean people all the time, if we had more Lorenzos in this world, it would be a lot more loving place.

P.S. Even though Lorenzo could draw hilarious stick figure comics and Mrs. Newberry could draw decent horses, only I can draw an Eiknarf.