altering a public space

Mid-way through sophomore year, I decided to join the Engineering Club.

I had been going through a teenage crisis at the time, still unsure about what I wanted to do with my life in the future, and at that point in time I had decided that maybe I could just follow in my father's footsteps and become an engineer. It was almost as if the heavens had heard me, when I saw the flyer, once taped up onto the window, on the floor after school. I immediately snapped a picture of it, and sent it to my best friend Manny, who also had an interest in engineering (one that actually stuck, lol).

I still remember what that day was like, when the two of us walked into the first meeting. I was late, as usual, because I wanted to fix my makeup in the mirror before heading downstairs. By association, Manny was also late, because she didn't want to show up before me. We trekked downstairs after the final bell, and I immediately understood what I had just walked into. The scope of the room was like so: computer lab, desktops left idle after the last class, and a large table, with about eleven nerdy boys sat around them. I recognized maybe a couple of them, but the rest, [Keke Palmer Voice] they could be walking down the street and I wouldn't know a thing. My eyes uncomfortably slid over to Manny's, who fit in more than I did, based on the fact that her aesthetic is the exact opposite of mine, and then there was no going back.

The soft chatter of the room slowly hushed as we awkwardly stood in the door frame. Eyes drifted towards me, and then the silence was interrupted by a rather loud WELCOME TO ENGINEERING CLUB, from the guy who I later learned to be creator. I mumbled back a choked up uh.. hey, and clumsily pulled out a roller chair. Once sat down, I suffered through some cordial icebreakers while assessing my situation with boys who refused to make eye contact with me. I knew how I presented myself; hair extremely poofy after a long day at school, bright pink top, and leather skirt, definitely wasn't helping me fit in any more than I could've-- but I didn't care, because I was here to learn about engineering! 

The next couple weeks of the club weren't any less awkward, but I refused to give up. One time, I was called a normie, because I suggested a club group chat on Instagram instead of Discord. The club leader gave me a (rather backhanded) compliment, when he said he was proud of the progress I had made quickly and eagerly learning the material despite being completely inexperienced, because he originally believed that I would stop showing up to meetings. When I asked him why he thought that, he told me "eh, just cause." 

.. and in classic Luna fashion, I persevered for a couple months until I found something more interesting to do :)