[Ashley Weed]

My transitional year was more of a timespan that encompassed many events, that not only changed me in FIRST, but made me as an individual grow up faster than expected. I went from an EXTREMELY over involved FIRST-a-holic student driver/operator traveling to all the off-seasons, scouted additional Regionals with my floor crew, headed up my scouting team, etc, etc.

Suddenly, I was unsure of what to do at 17 years old, getting ready to graduate high school, my driver career was concluding after such a long time, I was going away to school, and I was suddenly falling ill on top of everything. I panicked, I pulled myself out of my teams "happenings" and devoted myself to my schooling, my health, and my life in general.

Last Spring, Greg started with his reffing. I never really though it would take us to far. We ended up traveling as far as York, and he was invited to more and more places throughout the year. After spending the Summer and Fall around FIRST again, I just knew I couldn't spend another season away from it.

I am no longer going to be just "another teenager", while knocking on the door of twenty, I have decided to pull things together, and get back to my team this year to help out as much as I can. It has been very different though, I am no longer able to do the things I did for so many years. While I enjoyed working on the machines and fabricating, I think it has helped to "mentor" a different area of the team.