My Dad (an engineer/mentor) and my older brother (a programmer) got involved in first a year before I did. I thought "I have no idea how to do that stuff...it's too complicated for me. The year after that they finally convinced me to come to a meeting and check it out. So I did, and I thought it was kinda cool, but it was still way too complicated for me. I just joined thinking I would help out with fundraising, t-shirts...stuff like that.
But then build season came. I got asked to help with a thing or two, and I was hooked. (At some point I realised that I didn't need to know what I was doing before I joined, I would learn it as I went. And most of the others had no idea what they were doing, either...they were leaning, too.) I just loved doing all the hands on building stuff! I love to see our ideas come to life! (And after a few attempts...maybe even work.

) Eventually they started calling me "Chief Mechanic and bottle washer", and they blame me for building 90% of the robot.
After participating in FIRST, I've decided to go into engineering. I wasn't planning on going to college at all before, because I had no idea what I wanted to do. And now, I'll be starting engineering classes this fall.

It feels great to have a direction in life.
