[Tyler 178]

I am from the Pacific Northwest, where the two teams I've been on have basically been rookie teams. The first team I was on took a year off due to budget issues, so it was basically a rookie team when I joined even though it was technically their second year. Then last year, I started a team with all rookie team members at my own school.

This year, I got to go back to the Detriot Regional and watch some veteran teams in action. I got to see chiefdelphi #47, and the killer bees #33, among others, because there were several really good robots. I was on a college visit to decide between Michigan and Purdue.

I ended up picking Purdue and am going into the freshman engineering program at Purdue. It was icing on the cake when I realized that Michigan didn't have a FIRST team. Purdue not only mentors a team, but will have its own regional next year!!! I won't have to travel far to stay in touch with the action of FIRST.

I'm looking forward to staying involved.

And team 461, if you guys do good next year, it's not going to be because you are at your own regional. You guys had an awesome robot this year, (I saw lots of video via webcast), and you didn't have your own regional. So if you win awards, don't feel bad, because you probably earned them.