[rsegrest]

AGPapa,

I understand what you are saying but I think I am more in agreement with Carolyn_Grace. As stated previously my team has had the opportunity to compete with some of the elites. Some were incredibly inspiring...others not so much.

As an example of Carolyn’s reference to people coming out of the shadows: Four years ago I had two team members that were best friends. They played robots with me for three of their high school years (we founded our team the year they were sophomores). Even though they worked hand-in-hand and side-by-side it seemed that student A always outshone student B. Much of that was due to their personalities. After graduation A went to one major university while B went to another. And low and behold, once B was out of A's shadow he just...flew. All the things that were overlooked in him were now plainly visible just because he had the opportunity to shine in his own right. Now here we are four years later, A is currently working as an engineer and B finished his BS in Physics in 3 years and is now pursuing a BS in Mech Eng. Both are successful in their own right. Isn't it possible that there are teams who are equally as inspiring as the elites but are overshadowed by them?