Though our team won a few things this year, my best experience has to be the time I spent at nationals. I had so much fun walking around the pits and the Georgia Dome, meeting all sorts of neat people. The cool thing about FIRST is that you don't have to win anything to have fun. Even as we sat in the Curie stands, ranked 53 out of 73, waiting for the alliance selection to be over so we could go home (unaware that anyone would be crazy enough to pick us), I had already decided that this was the most fun I'd ever had. Getting the chance to continue competing was just icing on the cake.
This whole rookie season was an incredible experience. When I sat down with our team to start planning after the kickoff webcast, I thought there was no way that we were going to have anything even remotely impressive in six weeks. Not only did we manage to perform reasonably well, but our robot never once broke down or tipped over, something I am immensely proud of. (We did manage to
snap a piece of Lexan in half, but we were half-expecting it, and it didn't affect our performance.) And of course, I can't forget mentioning getting to watch our coach
getting a mohawk. In the last few months, I've gained so much from FIRST that it's hard to single out one great experience.