[Jacob Bendicksen]

Like Libby's post, this one will be personal, but I feel like I should write this down.

In September 2012, I walked into our lab for the first time. I had never touched a soldering iron, Allen key, or table saw before, but the team took me in as one of its own. I spent the fall concentrating on electronics, dreaming of the days when I'd be the electrical manager, wiring the entire robot in an afternoon. The feeling when the robot that I wired first drove was indescribable - I felt like I had really accomplished something profound.

January 2013, our 2012 Dean's List winner, Marina, asked me, the freshman, to join the Chairman's Award presentation team alongside her and Anne, both seniors with two years of presentation experience. I had to look up what the Chairman's Award was, but it sounded cool, so I jumped in and never looked back. We won the Oregon Regional Chairman's Award, and the sense of accomplishment, of sending the team to St. Louis, was amazing. St. Louis blew my mind, and I cried when Walt said "Team 15...38!" when announcing the Championship Chairman's Award, thinking that he was about to say "15...40!" I've been working towards having someone at the Championship say that ever since.

October 2013, I started the Chairman's essay. I had never lost a Chairman's Award in the Northwest, so it seemed inevitable that we'd win. A few months later, in Oregon City, we didn't. Two weeks later in Wilsonville, we didn't. Both awards went to teams that I didn't even know were submitting, and it was sobering for me. Suddenly, we only had one district left, and it was up to me to get this one right. I spent all of Spring Break reworking the presentation, and it paid off at OSU, and a week later at the PNW Championship. As someone famous once said, 'Victory is sweetest to those who have known defeat.' This time, I cried before St. Louis. We didn't win Chairman's in St. Louis, but we won Innovation in Control, and the look on my friend Colby's face made it worth it.

November 2014, my team chose me as one of two Dean's List nominees. I hadn't even thought about Dean's List up until that point, and I got more and more excited about it as competition season drew closer. For Chairman's, we learned our lesson last year, and we were cautiously optimistic heading into Oregon City. At Oregon City, everything just happened right. The robot, which had been dead last on Friday, ended up as a finalist on Saturday, providing the most fun we've had in playoff matches in years, and this year, our District Chairman's Award banner said 'Oregon City.' At Wilsonville, we were shocked during the award ceremony, when they called us down to receive Safety and Engineering Inspiration - two awards we never expected to receive. A few minutes later, during the Dean's List announcement, the first one went to my friend Mary, from 2733. She earned it. Then the announcer said..."Jason!" My heart sank for a few moments, before he realized that he'd read it wrong, and started calling my name. I flew down the stands and gave Mary the biggest hug I'd given her in a while.

April 2015, this past weekend, at the PNW Championship, I didn't know what to expect. All my friends from other teams were saying that Chairman's and Dean's List were both in the bag, that nothing could stop us and me from winning, but I was still incredibly nervous going into the award ceremony. We clearly weren't infallible for Chairman's, given our experience last year, and I had no idea what to expect for Dean's List. Nonetheless, the amazing Kevin Ross called my name for Dean's List, and a few minutes later, Darin the MC started talking about BunnyBots. We came away with a Chairman's win and I walked out as a Dean's List finalist, and it still hasn't sunk in.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit over the past few days, and I agree with what Libby wrote. While I'm overjoyed to be a Dean's List finalist, I feel like the team deserves the award, the team who took me in, who loved me, who believed in me, who took the most socially awkward middle schooler you'd ever meet and turned him into a team captain in three short years. I'm proud, yes, but I also feel a greater sense of responsibility. I now feel that I need to give back even more, to do more, to impact more.

The magic that Coach Eiland was talking about has worked for me. The entire FIRST community, especially the wonderful members of Team 1540, has played a role in shaping who I am today. As a result, I'm hugely indebted to all of you, and a quote from Henry Ford comes to mind: "To do more for the world than the world has done for you, that is success."

This community has done so much for me that I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to do more, but that won't stop me from trying.