It’s recess on a late fall morning in third grade. All of my friends are playing “Yu-Gi-Oh!” on the school field. I am not though, instead I’m sitting at a table reading a book. I had never really fit in with the group, preferring science and engineering to card games and sports. After school, instead of going home and playing video games or basketball, I liked to mess around with baking soda and vinegar, or read about energy conversion.

One day my school’s learning specialist stopped me on my way to class. “Hey, Luke,” she said, “do you read MAKE magazine?” I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“No” I replied. She went into her office and came back holding a thick magazine with a cover featuring a Tesla coil.

A couple of weeks later, I was at home reading the magazine on my bed. My mom noticed and asked what I was reading about. “There are these guys called ArkAttack who perform with lightning!” I exclaimed. “They change the frequency of the electricity and make speakers out of Tesla coils!”

“Wow! Tell me more,” she said, sitting next to me. Later that night, she called me over and pointed at her computer screen. “You know that magazine you were reading? There’s a fair that’s similar, and we could go. How about it?”

The Maker Faire, as it is called, is an annual gathering of engineers, programmers, and scientists who come to show off their creations to thousands of attendees like me, who spend a day or two admiring amazing projects, from ride-on cupcakes to fire-breathing mechanical octopi. After seeing my face light up, my mom bought tickets for the whole family.

Over the next few months, my friends invited me to a couple of birthday parties, one a soccer party and one a “Yu-Gi-Oh!” tournament. All of my friends were there, but I still felt left out, with my hastily scraped together card deck and my lack of soccer experience, trying to fit in. I traded my friend a rare card for an Oreo, not knowing how much it was worth or how to use it. My friend laughed at me and took the deal, but hey, I knew how to eat an Oreo.

Finally, it was the day I had dreamed of – the day of the Maker Faire. As my family waited in line; we could hear the clicks and clangs of machines and excited voices on the other side of the wall. I heard a whoosh and saw a pillar of flame shoot into the sky. As my frightened brother burst into tears, I hopped wildly with anticipation, wondering what had produced the fireball.

Finally we turned the corner. An old firetruck had been turned into something from Fahrenheit 451, with converted fire extinguishers launching burning propane into the air. Next to the truck was a sign reading “The Crucible.”

I moved closer, and the guy operating the truck, wearing a welding faceplate on his forehead, let me push the igniter. As I depressed the little red solenoid and a plume of fire erupted skyward, something clicked in my mind: There are hundreds of people like me out there, closer than I ever realized, with the same interests and passions.

My family walked around admiring the drones, homemade instruments, and never-ending Daleks. The day culminated in a live performance by Arc­Attack. After a couple of songs, a metal structure called a Faraday cage (a rectangular box made out of chicken wire) was brought out, and placed between the two giant Tesla coils. They picked volunteers, and I was chosen. I walked through the crowd, trembling with excitement. I had seen pictures of this before, but I could not believe it was happening to me. I stepped into the cage with some other kids, the door shut, and the music started. A low hum of static rumbled through my bones as the coils warmed up, and with a bzzzzt! blue lighting leapt out of one coil, passed through the cage and onto the other coil. I knew I was safe, that the lower resistance of the metal in relation to my body would divert the electricity. I was thrilled.

As the years passed, the Maker movement continued to fascinate me, and I visited the Maker Faire every year. I subscribed to MAKE magazine, volunteered at my school’s mini Maker fair, and found out how vast the Maker community actually is. This I believe: making and creating have the power to bring people together to pass on knowledge in a unique way.