Built Robots, Broke Myself

They said anyone could learn robotics. Just pick up some coding, brush up on linear algebra, join a club. Make it fun. I spent sophomore year drowning in prerequisites I was supposed to already know. While everyone else debugged their code like it was breathing, I Googled 'what is a variable' at 3AM. The robotics club felt like a job interview every meeting. Everyone had been building since middle school. I couldn't even get my servo motor to turn without breaking something. My robot finally worked for the competition. It moved, it responded, it did everything right. I stood there watching it perform perfectly and felt absolutely nothing. I realized I'd spent so long trying to prove I belonged in STEM that I forgot why I wanted to be there. The thing I thought would save me from academic anxiety became another thing I wasn't good enough for. #STEMStruggles #AcademicBurnout #RoboticsReality #Education