[scca229]

I wouldn't call it "MY Victory" but "FIRST's Victory".

As the FTAA at the Las Vegas Regional this past weekend, on Saturday after alliance selections we actually had the time to take a full lunch (first time I can think of as an FTAA for my 8th event now I think). As I was walking over to the Volunteer Room to sample the very good food they stuff into us each day, I was headed off by my step-mother, one of the extremely hard working team mothers/mentors for Team 60 (I am a remote mentor as well) among other things like FTC and multiple FLL teams. One of the Team 60 families had set up a BBQ layout out in the parking lot to feed the crew and it sounded awesome and I would be able to get some fresh air before the chaos of playoffs and field tear-down.

While I was sitting on the grass hill under the trees enjoying the huge burger with all the trimmings and enjoying chatting with the team, something similar to a Frisbee (I think it was a lid to a Rubbermaid food storage container that flew very well) went screaming by us and a member from another team made a pretty spectacular catch in front of me. When I turned to see who threw it, I saw that it was someone on a different team from another state. After a few minutes of watching, it occurred to me that there weren't just 2 playing, but 4...the other 2 were students from 2 other teams, each from one of the 4 (?) teams from China that were at this Regional.

As I sat there watching, the only thing I could think was, "If this isn't one of the bedrocks of FIRST, I don't know what is." Four kids that probably didn't know each other before Thursday just having fun together while waiting for the Playoffs to start. I leaned over and pointed it out to a few of the younger kids on the team and told them to remember what they are seeing...one of them was already writing it down in her notebook she uses for recording her experiences in preparation for submissions. If having no robot connection issues for the playoffs hadn't put a smile on my face, that right there did for the whole day.