[Karibou]

I was volunteering last weekend at Waterford, on field reset. The other reset student in my corner was a member of a rookie team, at his first competition. Working with him and watching him change over two days was one of the most fulfilling experiences I've had in FIRST.

Throughout both days, he was constantly asking questions about teams and about how things worked, and I was surprised at some of the questions he asked - things that I considered common knowledge were totally foreign to him. I got to teach him how to do the Cotton-Eye Joe. After the first dance song, when I had to literally grab his arm, pull him out of his seat, and say "You're at your first FIRST competition, and you're going to dance," he was one of the first people clapping his hands when the Cha-Cha Slide came on, or the first person to start bouncing and clapping to the YMCA.

His team did very well on Friday. On Saturday, he arrived and was talking about problems with their bot's arm, and was constantly getting/giving updates on how it was doing, down to how his teammates were finishing tuning the pots while they were in queue. They fought through the elims and ended up winning the event and taking home the Rookie All-Star award. The look on his face when the match ended, and then when the scores were posted, was priceless. The entire team was so excited to have done so well. They looked like they had been around for years, like alliance partner 548. They were so full of pride and excitement, just as every team should be. I know that even if they had been ranked last at the end of the day, they would still have been proud just to have competed.

And finally, there was one match during the event where his team scored the majority of the tubes on the wall. When we got back to our seats after resetting the field, he said "I love taking down my own tubes!", with so much light in his eyes. It was cute.

It was so fulfilling to see him transform so much in two days. I'm pretty excited to graduate and eventually become a mentor. It was a great experience.