Ken Leung
16-04-2005, 04:55
Hi everyone. I know I said last time that it will be the last post I will do in a very long time. Turns out it is not so easy to stay away after all. Quitting FIRST was so hard that I felt like I needed a 12 steps program to help me through it. But I am making progress. I managed to stay away from most of the Sacramento Regional except Saturday, which I had to visit because Libby Ritchie and team 393 came all the way from Indiana to compete, and I stayed away from Silicon Valley Regional, a much harder task considering it’s been my home base since the beginning.
What prompted me to come back to the Chief Delphi Forum was hearing the news about the Ritchie family. I want to take this chance to say that the Ritchie’s will be in my thoughts all the time, and the best of wishes to all of them during their recoveries…
Anyway, I was browsing around just a little bit after reading about the news, and the more messages I looked at, the more of they grabbed my attention. I looked at the discussions you are having, and noticed there are many questioning and judgment of other people in this program, which is ok as long as you are getting something positive out of the debate/discussion. Problem is, it is very easy to get pulled into them. You may find yourself wanting to question, judge, defend, clarify, explain, argue, support, criticize, agree with, tear apart, correct, shed light on, and put your 2 cents in, but pretty soon, that’s the whole day. It is very easy to focus in the little things and let the days go by, and sooner or later, it’s the entire season again. But let me ask you this: Is this all you want to do with your time in this place?
Pretty soon you are going to head over to Atlanta to compete in the Championship event. To many of you it will be the first time joining the big boys’ league (excuse my language here ;) ), to others it will be re-uniting with past competition comrades, ready to give the champion title another shot. This may very well be the most important experience of your entire life, one that will change your role in this program and your view about the world forever, so, let me ask you again: Is this (the questioning and judgment of others) all you want to do with your time in this program?
There are many problems in this world that are waiting to be solved, needing to be solved, and takes everything humankind have to give to be solved. There are places on earth suffering from nothing short of poverty, hunger, disease, disasters, and wars… And yet next week today you are going to participate in the largest event FIRST has ever created, staffed, built, and prepared by many mentors, volunteers, judges, and referees who are going to give one hundred and ten percent just to make sure you are there to experience it. These are some of the smartest, most dedicated people who could’ve been solving all the problems our society faces today, but instead they chose to be part of this program, motivated only by the mere chance that they might make a difference on the students coming to this competition, expecting absolutely nothing in return.
Why? Because they’ve decided that our generation is more important than anything in the world. They don’t have to be there to help run the Championship event, the sponsors didn’t have to give a dime to fund this program, and FIRST didn’t have to work so hard to build this quality program for our generation of young minds, but they did. And we owe it to all of them to understand at least that much.
It is very easy to focus in the little things like a certain referee’s call, or how many adults/students are working on the machine, or who didn’t win what awards. But pretty soon that’s going to be all 5 days at Atlanta, GA… So, you are going to have a lot of choices to make. How you are going to spend those 5 days at the 2005 Championship event; how you are going to take advantage of this program; and how you are going to accept the unacceptable and broaden your mind to horizons you’ve never even dream about?
It has been suggested that maybe we can tell you how to do all those things, that you listening to us is more important than you thinking for yourself. But we can’t do that. We can’t do that because it is not our place to decide what you want to do with your time, your energy, and your mind. Those decisions are yours and yours alone. Your critical thinking skills is the only tool you have to challenge these questions to their fullest extend, to cut your understanding of yourself into smaller and smaller pieces so you can examine them carefully, to analyze your own thoughts and discovers where your flaws may lie, to look at your own image and acknowledge where your strength really is, and see through the chaos and reach to the bottom of your heart to discover what your passion really is. We the mentors, the teachers, the giants and the fellow human beings can only show you the doors; you have to walk through them yourselves. You have a lot of choices to make, and these choices are yours and yours alone. You are going to have to convince yourself, not us.
But please,
Don’t choose to participate in this competition because you are going to win by being better than teams lesser than you; choose to participate because you are going to win by raising your own bar of standard so high that you are going to meet it at a level you never thought you could possibly achieve!
Don’t choose to participate in discussions because you can beat the others by throwing cheap shots and by lowering everyone to your standard; Choose to participate in a discussion because you are going to be excited by the prospect of looking at new angles you didn’t know you missed, and learning new ideas you didn’t know you lacked!
Don’t choose to respect mentors because they have the least against your action and say things you want to hear; Don’t choose to respect mentors because they let you slip by with lesser standards and lowered moral grounds; Choose to respect mentors because they shares your ideals, your hopes, and your dreams; Choose to respect mentors because they embodies what you need to let you see further than you could ever imagine, and push you higher than the highest you’ve ever flew, so you can aim for the stars and make it there one day!
Because when you have done that, you can go back to New Hampshire, to Massachusetts, to New York, to Pennsylvania, to Florida, to Michigan, to Indiana, to Texas, to Arizona, to California, and reach home after 5 days of tireless competition and countless encounters with strangers; you can look at yourself in mirror with your head held high, and say: This is my choice! And this is what I want to do with my time in this world! I am a participant of the FIRST Robotics Competition, and I HAVE BEEN INSPIRED!
Good luck with the competition, and may you have the most inspiring journey of your life in Atlanta, Georgia!
***The end of Part I***
What prompted me to come back to the Chief Delphi Forum was hearing the news about the Ritchie family. I want to take this chance to say that the Ritchie’s will be in my thoughts all the time, and the best of wishes to all of them during their recoveries…
Anyway, I was browsing around just a little bit after reading about the news, and the more messages I looked at, the more of they grabbed my attention. I looked at the discussions you are having, and noticed there are many questioning and judgment of other people in this program, which is ok as long as you are getting something positive out of the debate/discussion. Problem is, it is very easy to get pulled into them. You may find yourself wanting to question, judge, defend, clarify, explain, argue, support, criticize, agree with, tear apart, correct, shed light on, and put your 2 cents in, but pretty soon, that’s the whole day. It is very easy to focus in the little things and let the days go by, and sooner or later, it’s the entire season again. But let me ask you this: Is this all you want to do with your time in this place?
Pretty soon you are going to head over to Atlanta to compete in the Championship event. To many of you it will be the first time joining the big boys’ league (excuse my language here ;) ), to others it will be re-uniting with past competition comrades, ready to give the champion title another shot. This may very well be the most important experience of your entire life, one that will change your role in this program and your view about the world forever, so, let me ask you again: Is this (the questioning and judgment of others) all you want to do with your time in this program?
There are many problems in this world that are waiting to be solved, needing to be solved, and takes everything humankind have to give to be solved. There are places on earth suffering from nothing short of poverty, hunger, disease, disasters, and wars… And yet next week today you are going to participate in the largest event FIRST has ever created, staffed, built, and prepared by many mentors, volunteers, judges, and referees who are going to give one hundred and ten percent just to make sure you are there to experience it. These are some of the smartest, most dedicated people who could’ve been solving all the problems our society faces today, but instead they chose to be part of this program, motivated only by the mere chance that they might make a difference on the students coming to this competition, expecting absolutely nothing in return.
Why? Because they’ve decided that our generation is more important than anything in the world. They don’t have to be there to help run the Championship event, the sponsors didn’t have to give a dime to fund this program, and FIRST didn’t have to work so hard to build this quality program for our generation of young minds, but they did. And we owe it to all of them to understand at least that much.
It is very easy to focus in the little things like a certain referee’s call, or how many adults/students are working on the machine, or who didn’t win what awards. But pretty soon that’s going to be all 5 days at Atlanta, GA… So, you are going to have a lot of choices to make. How you are going to spend those 5 days at the 2005 Championship event; how you are going to take advantage of this program; and how you are going to accept the unacceptable and broaden your mind to horizons you’ve never even dream about?
It has been suggested that maybe we can tell you how to do all those things, that you listening to us is more important than you thinking for yourself. But we can’t do that. We can’t do that because it is not our place to decide what you want to do with your time, your energy, and your mind. Those decisions are yours and yours alone. Your critical thinking skills is the only tool you have to challenge these questions to their fullest extend, to cut your understanding of yourself into smaller and smaller pieces so you can examine them carefully, to analyze your own thoughts and discovers where your flaws may lie, to look at your own image and acknowledge where your strength really is, and see through the chaos and reach to the bottom of your heart to discover what your passion really is. We the mentors, the teachers, the giants and the fellow human beings can only show you the doors; you have to walk through them yourselves. You have a lot of choices to make, and these choices are yours and yours alone. You are going to have to convince yourself, not us.
But please,
Don’t choose to participate in this competition because you are going to win by being better than teams lesser than you; choose to participate because you are going to win by raising your own bar of standard so high that you are going to meet it at a level you never thought you could possibly achieve!
Don’t choose to participate in discussions because you can beat the others by throwing cheap shots and by lowering everyone to your standard; Choose to participate in a discussion because you are going to be excited by the prospect of looking at new angles you didn’t know you missed, and learning new ideas you didn’t know you lacked!
Don’t choose to respect mentors because they have the least against your action and say things you want to hear; Don’t choose to respect mentors because they let you slip by with lesser standards and lowered moral grounds; Choose to respect mentors because they shares your ideals, your hopes, and your dreams; Choose to respect mentors because they embodies what you need to let you see further than you could ever imagine, and push you higher than the highest you’ve ever flew, so you can aim for the stars and make it there one day!
Because when you have done that, you can go back to New Hampshire, to Massachusetts, to New York, to Pennsylvania, to Florida, to Michigan, to Indiana, to Texas, to Arizona, to California, and reach home after 5 days of tireless competition and countless encounters with strangers; you can look at yourself in mirror with your head held high, and say: This is my choice! And this is what I want to do with my time in this world! I am a participant of the FIRST Robotics Competition, and I HAVE BEEN INSPIRED!
Good luck with the competition, and may you have the most inspiring journey of your life in Atlanta, Georgia!
***The end of Part I***