I had a bit of a non standard time.
I swiched from Herndon to a private, distance learning program my junior year of high school. Here in Fairfax County, if you are not a student then you arn't suppost to participate on the sports teams or extracurricular activites. I was fortunate in that our lead teacher was willing to let me continue on the team. It did, however, prevent me from going to Nationals my senior year (2002).
I graduated the spring of 2002, and just worked retail and had a good time for a year. I purposfully did not participate with my team in 2003, to avoid issues with friends still on the team and such. I met up with a rookie team, 1123 and went to a few meetings, then I broke my car (for 7 months) and was unable to get to their build site to help.
It was durring this hiatus from active participation with a team that I started chating with other FIRST-a-holics online and became good friends with some of them. So much that I was able to fly out to San Jose and stay with the Golds and volunteer at the Sillicon Valley Regional. I was so not ready to go home that I asked my grandparents if I and some friends could stay with them at their house in LA for the LA regional. They agreed, and 5 or so of us went down to LA and volunteered again.
That volunteering experiance was a fundamentaly diffrent experiance then the one I got while as a student.
This year, I started classes in Emergency Medicene at NVCC and rejoined 116 as an adult mentor. In the fall, we've always done a mini competition, and I had a group of kids. The type of work I did was rather different. I'm only two years out of high school, but my viewpoint has changed dramaticly. I was doing alot of project management. I don't have the knowledge to do the detailed engineering equaitions, but I have the general knowledge to get a rough estimate in my head. So I was guidling these young adults (alot like me) through the engineering design process, yet I've never had a formal class in it. I think I did an ok job, because my group was about as far along as anyone else was when we ran out of time and had to move on.
This spring I was working 24 hours a week, taking 13 credits at NVCC, and going to most of the meetings. I had class durring times that the team met, but I went to my classes instead. As it got near the end of the build season, I began to better understand the time commitment that Dave and Mr Tripp and Jack and Heidi and Ms Bobzine made to be there all the time.
It was also diffrent in that it was a part of my life, not what my life revolved around.
My experiance in FIRST in college has been overwhelmingly positive. I think I've also been able to pass on some things I've learned, at least in the shop. (I love making things

) I may go away to nursing school this fall, but thats still a maybe. Either way, FIRST will be a part of it, but not the deciding factor in everything that it was while I was in high school. (I think thats maturity... From me!?!)
Wetzel