Not sure if this belongs here or in r/BenignExistence but this was the first subreddit I thought of.
This starts when I (now 24f) was in about 6th grade. My aunt was driving my cousin to a robotics meeting, and I couldn't be left alone in the house or didn't want to be left alone in the house (I can't remember which one). My aunt was one of the team mentors, so she was staying at the lab. I walk into a slightly overwhelming robotics lab filled with high school boys and a few girls. If I remember correctly, I was doing my schoolwork for the most part, and then I took breaks whenever the rest of the robotics team did.
That's when I saw them. A specific cookie that I now know are those anisette cookies. They are soft and sweet and crunchy and I loved them.
I ended up tagging along to more robotics meetings, hoping they'd be there, as I'm a food-driven person. Eventually, I ended up officially joining the team as a junior member in 7th grade. The team was a part of FIRST robotics, which is a high school level league, but we were one of the few teams that weren't associated with a specific high school. Yes, there is a middle school league, but I don't think my parents found a team that I could join. As such, I joined the high school team in 7th grade.
Through this robotics team, I learned many skills, met many friends, and our mentors were and still are valuable people to me. The team moved lab locations twice, and they are still located in the lab I left.
After graduating from a short season in 2020, I have been slightly emotional for that time. Even though I never ended up in a STEM field, I have so much respect and love for those who are in STEM fields. The team has since grown and now appears to have a significantly greater number of female members. They went to the national competition in Houston a few years ago, and while they didn't win the top spot, I'm sure they found the experience just as valuable as the regional competitions.
Where is this all coming from? I went to the grocery store and found those cookies again. I bought a box, and I'm enjoying them and reminiscing on the time spent in the lab.