Courtesy of Liang Zhao

We sat on hay bales during a field trip in kindergarten.

In what seemed to be another lifetime away, two kindergarten children stepped into a new school in 2013 — Stratford Preparatory School. By the end of first grade, we had become close friends, but our paths split after Bryan began attending Foothill Elementary School. It took seven years for us to become friends again in freshman year.

We aren’t really sure what sparked our friendship in kindergarten. Whether it was playing war games during class together or digging (and throwing) pellets from the turf during recess, we remember clicking immediately. Furthermore, we found out we shared the same birthday, a year apart, through our teacher — Alec is the older one. We found a special connection with each other through this coincidence. 

One hangout led to another, and on Oct. 20, 2013, we found ourselves — in reality, our parents — hosting a large 60-person birthday celebration at a pumpkin patch. Though the night we remember seems like a hazy orange blur, we grew closer as friends and got to know each other a lot better. This experience was the first major milestone that distinctly marked our friendship.

Alec: One distinct memory that I have from 2013 was visiting the Stanford campus with Bryan. I remember squeezing into his dad’s blue Honda and taking pictures together in the quad. Something that struck me was his family’s hospitality and kindness, and they made me feel at home throughout the entire trip.

Bryan: There are two things I have loved most since childhood. Food and no school. On a certain Veteran’s Day, Alec invited me over to his house. One thing I distinctly remember is the pack of turquoise gummies that he shared. Before that experience, I  didn’t know the pleasure of gummy bears, and this event led to a discovery. It wasn’t really the taste or texture that stuck with me, but rather the fun of trying new things with friends. 

When Bryan moved from Stratford to Foothill, we naturally grew apart and didn’t think we would run into each other again, since we didn’t have any way to contact each other. Yet, right before the beginning of freshman year, our paths crossed again.

Alec: I had just moved from Stratford to Saratoga High, and I didn’t know anyone else in our grade. Right after the new students’ orientation, I remember walking around Food Truck Fest feeling a bit lost. Then, my parents pulled me aside to meet someone they said was an old friend of mine. Bryan took me under his wing, introducing me to seemingly hundreds of people, making me feel more at ease about entering a new environment. That small gesture meant a lot to me.

Bryan: As a freshman, I was super excited to attend my first high school event. While the event was really chaotic and full of commotion, I was pulled aside by my parents to let me know that my old friend — Alec — was also coming to SHS. While the lack of communication for seven years made it a bit awkward, it quickly wore off, and I brought Alec along to meet my friends from Redwood Middle. As I had never moved districts since first grade, I wasn’t too sure how it felt and wanted to make him feel welcome.

Freshman year, we both had the sixth-period Journalism 1 Yearbook class. Despite not working on any layout assignments together, we still made core memories. Whether it was playing the Halloween Google Doodle game in class (sorry, Ms. Laws), or making a highly regarded yearbook theme Yin Yang (which was most popular by vote, but still didn’t win), we made invaluable memories in our first year of high school.

The next major milestone in our friendship came the summer after sophomore year, when Alec joined Bryan’s robotics team. 

Alec: I was going through a rough time on my previous team, but didn’t know where or how to get a fresh start. I remember ranting to Bryan about it, and he immediately offered me a spot on his team. I can’t put into words how much I came to appreciate the opportunity that Bryan gave me. Not only did his offer essentially revive my passion for robotics, but it also gave me a new environment to grow closer to my new teammates, many of whom I’ve become very close friends with. Throughout the two seasons that we’ve competed together, we went through the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. From meticulously tuning our robot just for it to fail during competitions to placing in the top eight teams in the world at the World Championships, the hundreds of hours of build sessions we spent together and bad karaoke that we sang late into the nights are some of my favorite memories. 

Something that I’ve admired about Bryan is his ability to network with other teams and competitors. The connections he made with some of the top teams in our region helped us develop our skills, learn new building techniques and succeed at our competitions.

Bryan: After Alec joined the team, we quickly became caught up in the year’s game. One thing we really struggled with in the previous season was with the manufacturing of correct plastic parts, and Alec happened to be very experienced with 3D printing, as well as digital modeling on Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software. He began a team habit of printing out prototype parts using filament, which greatly improved our team’s robot progression and assembly time. Over the season, as States, Nationals, and then Worlds rolled by, his method was why our robot hardware was among the most consistent in the game. 

Apart from his knowledge, Alec’s work ethic was very motivating. Especially during late weekday nights, when the robot faced random issues, Alec remained calm and methodical and stayed until the issue was resolved. Through the late nights of parents yelling at us to go home the night before (or morning of) the competition, countless hours of shared passion and absolutely terrible, off-tune singing, our endeavors led us more competitively robotics-wise, but also bolstering our friendship.

With our friendship in robotics also came our arguments over who was correct. Each conversation followed the lines of, “Alec, stop ragebaiting me.” “I’m not ragebaiting, you are. I’m just telling the truth.”

This would go on for hours on end, arguing about robot designs, food, song choice and everything else under the sun. Yet, despite the anger and frustration we felt at times, we both understood that we were both working toward our shared goal of pursuing excellence in a field that we shared a passion for.

Of course, no amount of words can describe what we’ve been through together or accurately describe how deep our friendship runs. Over the course of over a decade, our friendship has only grown — from hosting a party at a pumpkin patch to growing apart and reconnecting, or from arguing and ragebaiting at robotics to succeeding on the highest level of competition — and we’re confident that it will continue for more years to come.