[Dillon Compton]

Originally Posted by Dillon Compton

Everyone always swears that FIRST is their life, and in many ways it is; it certainly dominates my thoughts for 6 weeks, and is at least present the rest of the year. But when you get down to it, FIRST is really not so much about the robot, and actually not even about the experience. FIRST is really about opening your- and the worlds- eyes to the reality, wonder, and challenge that is inherint in science and engineering. I know that before FIRST, for me at least, robots were mystical things that I never hoped to understand; I planned on going to school for law, and being a lawyer. I hadnt even considered careers in math, science or engineering (I am now planning on dual majoring in neuroscience and engineering in undergrad and doing graduate work either in biomimetics or organic computing). Additionally, after dealing with "the build" and the stress of competitions, I will never claim or let it be claimed within my hearing, that "that science competition" or "the robotics team" is NOT a real sport/challenge. This is probably, as Woodie Flowers once put it, "the hardest thing [we've] ever done". And thats the way, uh-huh uh-huh, we like it (uh-huh uh-huh).

If nothing else, remember that you can look down on the field with pride, at something that moves (and no, not everyones robot moves- ours didn't sometimes in 2004)

Excerpt from a post I made a few days ago- I think it fits with this theme.

-Dillon Compton
Team 1394