[smurfgirl]

At my very first robotics meeting in fall 2005, some team members explained to me what the team does, and in the process showed me the 2005 robot and explained how it worked. It was by no stretch of the imagination a "good" robot, but my reaction to seeing it was complete awe that it was possible for high school kids to build a functional machine that was as tall as me. A part of me figured that there was no way I could be a useful or successful member of the team, but I was intrigued by the concept of FIRST so I ended up sticking around. I helped build the 2006 robot, and later that season, the team was ranked last throughout most of the New England Regional. While I has learned it was indeed possible for high school students to build functional machines the same size as me, it was still pretty easy to look at the more successful teams and think "how on earth could a high school student have done that?". Later that day, our team was selected to join an alliance with two very experienced and accomplished teams. They passed on a lot of knowledge that not only explained how their teams were so successful, but also directly contributed to our team's success in subsequent years. At times in our more successful seasons, 1124 has heard similar negativity and criticism... and guess how we have responded? We also pass on our knowledge to teams in need. As an inexperienced or struggling team, it can be easy to question and criticize other teams as a defense mechanism. This will certainly continue to happen into the future. What we need to change is the way we react to this "haterade" - we have to help frustrated teams see how they can aspire to be all that the successful teams are, and give them the tools so that they can get there.