“Okay, everyone assigned bus seven you can board the bus.” Yelled my science teacher. I was with my friends Jacqueline, Chanel, Esther, and a girl named Isabel. Esther’s dad was chaperoning, and constantly asking things like “You girls need anything?” “Are you cold?” “Everybody stay close together.” We boarded the bus, since we were the last to board, we couldn’t exactly find seats where we were close, so we had to split up. Luckily I found a spot in the middle of the bus that was empty and no one was there(unless you count the little dust bunnies under the seat). I was super bored, there was nothing to do except listen to a bunch of boy’s bloodcurdling yells and screams. Then I remembered that I had my mom’s phone in my satchel. I took it out and started to play a game. After dying multiple times in the same level, I got really bored so I put the phone back in my satchel and looked out the window.

The world passed by, it looked like I was traveling in a time machine, watching the farms turning into factories, and the large lakes and oceans turning into tourist attractions. Finally I saw a large orange building with a very big ultramarine blue dome on the top of it all. Then I knew it was it. We stepped outside, I just stood there for like to minutes. Though I looked calm, on the inside I was screaming “OH MY GODS I AM IN THE TECH MUSEUM OF INNOVATION I CAN’T BELIEVE IT WOW THE ARCHITECTURE IS AMAZING OH MY GODS  NO ONE CAN SAY THEY LIVED LIFE WITHOUT COMING HERE OH MY GODS OH MY GODS OH. MY. GODS.”( I may have exaggerated a little bit, don’t judge me I was excited okay.)

As we walked around the building to the entrance, we started to walk side by side with my friend Jayden’s group. “You’re freaking out, aren’t you Wise Girl?” He said with a goofy smirk. “You have no idea Feline Face.” I said with a huge grin. Those were our nicknames for each other. His favorite animal is a cat, and everything he owns is literally a cat or anime related thing, hence the name Feline Face. He calls me Wise Girl, because he knows how much I love the Percy Jackson series, and he and our other friends think I am exactly like Annabeth, one of the main characters in the series. Anyway, we walked past this huge pillar that looked like it was made of Lego’s, we arrived at the entrance my eyes went wide. “Oh. My. Gods.”

Jayden smiled as I stared in awe at the structure in front of us. It was a wall of colorful tiles, that were arranged to represent molecules, and the the human DNA. My friends and Esther’s dad laughed as I jumped up and down in elation. Before we walked in, the staff that worked in the museum passed out little slips of paper. Before they explained what it was for Jayden started to blush like crazy, and then said. “Hey, my group got these tickets to see one of the interactive exhibits that is really new, and I thought you would like it so–” He handed me a slip of paper that said, ” Medical and Health Exhibit.” Each person got a slip of paper with an exhibit that was unique and new. I accidentally had received two, but everyone had already gotten one, and mine said, “Video and Animation.” Since we were still allowed to visit each new exhibit anyway, I said. ‘Well, I thought you would like this too.” I said with a sly grin. Jayden’s eyes popped as he read the title, a few seconds later he was hugging me and saying, “OH MY GOD THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!” We both parted ways as we entered.

“OHMYGODSOHMYGODSOHMYGODSOHMYGODS.” I said under my breath as we entered into the(amazing) pavilion. It was so unique, nothing like any museum I’ve seen in my life( then again, I’m only eleven.) The entire grade was supposed to meet in this large room. Mr. Vega (Esther’s dad) led us there, while my friends and I trailed alongside each other. After we got there, the rest was just instruction. Then the entire grade broke to go explore. We first went to a section called “Coding and Engineering” I saw my friend Zach( aka Zoom Zoom) and he told us about this one really cool section of the exhibit, because he has been here four times already. But I wasn’t paying attention. I saw a little area, my friends trailed alongside me, and we saw a little dinosaur in a glass case. There was a screen about the size of my face. I put my elbow on the surface below. But then I clicked something. The little dinosaur kissed the glass, in which we were looking.  I desperately searched for what I did. My friends stared in awe at the dinosaur, as I clicked and clicked more buttons.

WAIT A MINUTE, THAT’S SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! I realized. Coding and Engineering. I just coded a dinosaur to kiss the glass. I JUST CODED A DINOSAUR TO KISS THE GLASS. That was so cool. No that wasn’t cool, that was innovative. I didn’t realize until now how much coding really changed people’s lives. My friends started to make the dinosaur do more things, like making it dance, or do a funny face. We then went to a different exhibit, where we got to design our own robots, and construct them. I wanted to create a robot that could write and compose music for any instrument to play. Of course it took a lot of coding. As I coded and designed, my other friends made cat like robots, or robots that would dance on the walls. It took ten minutes to code the robot to find musical notes from the internet and create music with it. And it took an additional ten minutes to figure out a design. But finally I was done. As my friends started to leave, I was about to disable my robot. But then one of the staff walked up to me and looked at my robot. “Wow. Impressive! How old are you?” “E-eleven.” I stuttered. I hate dragging attention to myself, so this was a huge loss for me,” The worker had a shocked look on her face and then asked “What does it do?’ I started to explain and when I finished she looked bewildered and in wonder.  “Is it okay if I could show this to my co-workers?” She asked. I stuttered in a shocked tone “Yes, of course.”

My friends and Mr. Vega must have been watching, because when I confronted them, they looked at me like I was a goddess. It was around lunchtime, so we headed back to the main room where me first met. We got out our lunches and I took out the map we were given. Since we had loads of time after lunch for more exhibits, we planned out which ones we will go on. Then I saw my slip of paper for the medical and health exhibit, I stared at it with wonder in my eyes. Mr. Vega’s expression told me we both had the same idea.  So after lunch, we were about to become doctors.

We saw a sign that led us to the health exhibit and followed it. When we got there, I was in utter shock. Inside was a huge room, dedicated to medicine, exhibits, that included designing and of course medical activity. As my friends wandered around I went to a simulation where you got to do surgery on a human body. I chose the cardiovascular surgery so it took a bit, but for some weird reason I knew exactly what to do. I didn’t notice Mr. Vega standing above me until I finished. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” he asked in unison to his thoughts. I paused and then said “Anything in the medical field, but specifically I want to be gynecologist.”

I continued to wander. I found one area where you had to design a swaddle warm enough for a premature baby to be in( premature babies have to be kept warm, or they will surely pass). I designed a material that was made from reused microfibers, that part was for the inside. On the outside a created a special fabric kind of like that material on really puffy sports jackets. But instead of the material being cool and smooth, I designed it to have more insulation so the body heat from the baby could be trapped inside the swaddle. Making sure no heat transfer happened. When I finished, it was tested on a virtual baby, that was designed to feel and act like a baby. This made sure that the swaddle was cold-proof. One of the directors for this activity watched as I finished up. The screen showed that my design was successful. “You know, the best designs go to designers and doctors, to maybe create.” I stared in shock and before I said anything he said “Looks like this ones a winner, great job kid.” Then he walked away. I walked towards my friends to go to the next exhibit.

We were now in the space exhibits. And let me tell you was only able to say one thing: OH MY GODS. There were simulators, interactive exhibits, and even a place where you could try on a space suit. I tried that first with my friends. It took each of us a while to put everything on, because the suits were actually designed for future teens astronauts. It was so big and bulky, and I felt like I was really an astronaut about to shuttle of. We even got to try space suits for trips to Mars for when teens go. The suits were way more flexible then the other ones. Since we each got a suit to where at the same time we all started laughing because one of our friends put on hers backwards. We took of the suits, and went to the space launch simulator where you got to go on a real mission.

My friends voted me as the pilot and leader, so I went to the main seat that had the controls. We put on our seat belts, closed the door and we counted down for ignition. “5….4….3….2….1…” Then we took of. It was such a weird feeling. It was so strong, I felt like I was being impaled into the seat. Luckily we go into orbit. We saw stars and nebula’s everywhere. Then we saw Earth from the distance. Put then I felt a strange feeling like I was floating. I unbuckled my seat belt, and I floated up, I saw my friends and Mr. Vega flying too. This was the best simulator I ever went on. No not a simulator, it was like a ride! I did back flips in the air.  THIS IS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD, WAIT I TAKE THAT BACK, THE GALAXY! I thought. Suddenly little packets of space food ejected into the zero gravity like atmosphere. Freeze dried ice-cream. I thought not bad. I realized that they made the simulation so realistic because they used indoor sky-diving like technology. Wow, smart, I thought. Then it was time to go back to Earth, uh, I mean the exhibits.

As we got out, I felt like I was going to feel like I was floating forever. Since we were done with space, we went to an earthquake simulation that was nearby. As we got on, I felt like was going to instantly going to break my skull. The ground shook so suddenly that I toppled into the railing beside me. Wait, this is the Chile earthquake. The strongest earthquake in history. 9.5 is pretty strong. It was only a few minutes long, but to me and my friends, it felt like eternity. When it was over we stumbled  out of the simulation, and had to make sure we all didn’t fall at the same time. We had about an hour before we had to leave. So we went to all the small activities.

There was this really cool one where you designed your own roller coaster, and got to ride on it. It was so much fun, my coaster was designed to do to double flips, and then at one point of the ride, it goes super fast, and then the whole rail is just cut of, causing the coaster to soar in the air, and then land back in the rail. We then went to this really cool area, where there was this huge black screen, and we had to try to use our body heat to create kind of a mutant molecule. Then we went to a big room where we designed an earthquake proof building, using tape, woods, and of course, power tools. But then sadly, it was time to go. We still had a ton of stuff to cover, but I promised myself that we would come again soon.