Robotics Reflection
Until the beginning of my freshman year, I had never been on a team. I always thought that because I preferred to do things individually, being on a team would be a horrible experience because I would never get my way. When I joined robotics, that opinion completely changed. Team 108 was the first place that I could find my place. Previously, I always knew that I wanted to do something engineering related because I was good at math and science, but never knew exactly what. After finding out about the team and FIRST after 108 received media coverage after winning the Curie division in 2005, I knew that this seemed like a cool thing to do and I had to be a part of it. Now in my second year on the team, I have realized that FIRST is not just a cool thing to do, but probably the most beneficial experience that I have ever engaged in.
Because of my experience in FIRST, I have stepped up to many leadership positions that I would have rejected in the past. The team has built me into a better team player and leader. My skills in the many areas of science have also improved greatly because of how interdisciplinary robots are to build. I have dabbled into areas that I would have never considered learning before because of this. Also, I never considered my nit-picky organizational skills to be useful, but the much-needed position of Project Manager was added to the team this year to effectively manage inner workings of the team, with both robot and non-robot related issues. I cannot go a day without thinking about FIRST and robotics, and I know that it is an experience never to be forgotten.
Besides what I have learned from my own team, I have also learned quite a bit from the founding values of FIRST and what other teams have set out as examples. Originally I thought that “Gracious Professionalism” was rather silly and over rated, but after witnessing such great acts of Gracious Professionalism at the few competitions that I have been to, I have realized that it is now a necessity in our society, and since then, I have been making strides to be more Graciously Professional. Also, the spirit of the competition is amazing. I was in awe when I went to the Championships last year, not expecting hundreds of thousands of people to be so excited about robots, but then again, I was too! FIRST events are now my favorites of the year, topping my birthday and Christmas, and I eagerly look forward to fun and exciting new learning experiences consistently year after year.
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