I got into working on mechanics because I grew up around tools and learned about them from a young age, so they were always familiar to me. I was fascinated by learning about how things worked, and I found it cool seeing how people engineered and designed things to work so perfectly in unison. I learned most of the skills I know from my dad, but I sometimes learn something new and random off the Internet, or just by screwing around and finding things out the hard way. 

I work on a lot of different types of projects. I don’t work on cars very often because I don’t drive yet, but I help out my dad when he is working on his own cars sometimes. I have more experience working on bikes, since I ride and break mine a lot – but I’ve gotten used to fixing it. I also do lots of computer hardware and woodwork projects.

What I enjoy most about working on mechanical things is the freedom to make things that are funny or ridiculous, but also having the ability to solve everyday problems I face. I also find it very rewarding whenever I finish building something, since I get to see my work pay off in the end. 

I just finished building a new bike about a week ago, but a long term project that I’ve been working on is designing and 3D-printing a robot arm – like the ones used in factories, but smaller and more affordable. I hope to study mechanical engineering in college later on and to keep building from there.