Meeting Barack Obama :)

I will never forget meeting President Barack Obama. The morning of Friday, January 22, 2010, I found myself both anxious and extremely nervous. The thought of meeting the President of the United States was not a thought I took very lightly. When I found out I would be meeting him, I found myself in disbelief. It was not until my fellow peers and I were being scanned and searched by the Secret Service, that the gravity of the situation actually began to sink in. Sitting in the FabLab waiting for the President’s arrival, was both exciting and nerve wracking. It was then that I began contemplating all of the benefits of using the FabLab. As geometry students, we work with three-dimensional shapes and in the FabLab we were given the privilege to see, create, and modify three-dimensional shapes. My partner Akil and I were editing a design for a butterfly-shaped rocking chair that we would be creating. We would be creating this rocking chair using a special machine called the Shop Bot. After seeing the President enter the building, I could not believe my eyes. When he entered the room, the entire atmosphere lit up. I was the first person he approached. The President shook my hand and asked my name. At that moment, I realized that I did not have to worry because he is in fact just a regular person, but meeting him was still an honor. President Obama then walked around the room, examining everyone’s work and allowing them to introduce themselves. At that point, Akil and I went into a different part of the FabLab which contained the Shop Bot. We then began carving our rocking chair out of wood. After a few minutes, President Obama entered the room and asked us a simple question about transferring data to the machine. He also asked Akil and me what future careers we have in mind. We both told him we were looking to be in the medical field and he said he was proud. When he shook my hand to leave, I could not resist, I leaned in and asked the President for a high-five. He simply smiled and raised his hand and then offered me a fist bump. High-fiving and fist-bumping the President was something I never thought I would accomplish, but I will now carry the memory for the rest of my life. After he left smiling, I couldn’t believe what had actually just happened.