If you all want the honest truth as to why I joined FIRST, I was forced into it. When I was in seventh and eighth grade my dad was our the teacher in charge (this was our teams first two years in competition). Freshman year I had no plans to do it anymore. The people who I saw in SPAM either scared me b/c of their brillance in enigneering or b/c of their downright stragness. I also knew how much time it took up. Even those two years that I wasn't officially a member of the team, I seemed to have no time to do anything.
Then my friend took me aside in mid-October of my freshman year and told me that I was going to the SPAM meetings, that I would be in FIRST again, and that I was going to have fun. I just groaned and started going to the meetings.
Over that year, I really started to get to know the other students and engineers on my team. The team members who I had known from previous years took me under their wing and taught me everything. I went to the KSC regional and nats that year and loved it.
Ever since..I've met so many people, learned so much, and had such a great time that I couldn't see myself not doing FIRST.
Sorry for such a long reply..
~ Angela who hopes to do FIRST in college, but still has two years of high school to worry about that