[Sam Cat]

My interest in FIRST was probably ingrained in me since I was a little girl. I loved to play with legos, and my comfort around tools was apparent when I let my dad pull out my first tooth with his pliers (much to his surprise, considering I wouldn't let my mom pull it out with her fingers!). Anyway, I decided I wanted to join FIRST when I went to (what is now) my school's open house. I met the team mentor, and he described to the whole room of us how FIRST is "the hardest fun you'll ever have." Our robot from 2002 was on display, and I determined to join the robotics team at the first opportunity. I've loved participating in FIRST ever since. Nothing compares to the challenge of build season and the satisfaction of seeing your creation compete against robots built by teams from all over the world. It's one of the greatest feelings ever. You meet a lot of great people and learn so much through the process about robots, teamwork, and life. FIRST confirmed for me that I want to be a robotics engineer, and I tell everyone I meet how awesome FIRST is. A lot of the girls on the team just graduated, so I really hope more girls will realize how awesome FIRST is and join a team.