[Arefin Bari]

I am amazed that threads like this didn't have any posts.

I have a lot of mentors to say thanks to... but there are few who I definitely want to point out in this thread.

Jack Vanderzee (Team 108 Engineer): Stack Attack 2003 season, Florida Regional, Team 108's transmission broke after every single match. It was like that for all 3 days. Saturday morning, he walks up to me and looks at my face. I was upset because of how the robot was breaking. He tells me "Arefin, the last smile will be yours." We get through qualifying and got picked by team 212. We went onto winning the Florida regional with team 212 and team 168. After we won the gold, he comes up to me again and tells me "I told you Arefin, the last smile will be yours, hard work always pay off." Yup... he is a very inspiring engineer. He always told me not to give up and he believed in me.

Felix Alvarez (team 108 Mechanical lead): An engineer who always inspired me to do everything on the robot.

Craig Bishop: (Team 108 team-leader): Engineer who joined the team 2004 season and changed the team in a good way. A very inspiring, friendly engineer, who is very good at showing what teamwork means.

Zahir Hassan (Team 108 Electrical lead): He has been on the team for 10 years. Always been there for the kids, always there to help and organize the team.

Garry Ardizone (Team 108 Engineer): An engineer who always makes you put a smile on your face.

Stan Shelton (Team 108 Teacher): A man who speaks for himself. Throughout my high school career, he has been there to help me to take every little steps. I still remember the first day in his class, when I walked up to him and said hello.

Andy Baker (Team 45 Engineer): Other than John-V-Neun, he is the reason that I am so into meeting new engineers in FIRST. Andy spent a lot of time with me explaining different aspects of gearboxes, ratios, how it works. He is one of the very first reason, I know how to design a gearbox.

John-V-Neun (Team 229 lead designer, now an engineer): After getting a lesson from Andy Baker, I still had a lot of questions that I needed answer to. Thats when this man came in play. John sat through hours and hours to teach me how to design a gearbox, how to draw it up, and what is the proper way to do it.

Ron (Team 107 Machinist): I met him back in 2003 at Midwest Regional, when I needed to make a shaft and I ran to his pit. Ron let me use his lathe (that he custom made), and ever since every single competition I go to, I would stop by and talk to him. Not only that he is very inspiring, he is also a good friend. At the championship, this past season, he almost brought tears to my eyes. He met my gf at the championship. He promised me to plant an Oak tree in his backyard in remember of me and my gf. He also told me that I am always invited to his house. Now I have a reason to go to Michigan. In a very little time, this man has won all my respect. A very inspiring, great contributor to FIRST, he is one of the mentors who you really want to keep in touch with.

... There are many more mentors who has inspired me. But I had to pick out these few special ones. They have done a lot for me. I am what I am because of their inspiration and their hard work. I thank them with all my heart. They are the reason I will be coming back to FIRST.

In a chat two nights ago... we were having a conversation about how few students are graduating and if they will ever be back in FIRST. Kyle from team 45 said "Dude, I still have 2 years left in FIRST ahahaha.." My response to that was... "Kyle, I have till the day I die."