[MChapman]

This is a hard question for me, and involves a lot of thinking. lol Well FIRST overall is a great inspiration to me. When i first joined my team i felt like i had no place on the team, an just felt weird. I didnt know what to expect, or what to do, little did i even know what a FIRST team was. But as my first year went along by build season i was confident enough in what i was doing that i began to step up. I showed up to build meetings, put in ideas, worked on our essays for chairmans an woodie flowers, and just helped where ever it was i could. By the end of that year i was a leader on the team, (little did i know my head mentor thought i was a good V.P. for the team) Getting to know the science and engineering field a little better has inspired me a great deal, that i took the time this past season to learn the electronics on our robot. Though its not something im planning on doing in college, i still have more knowledge of the stuff now, an therefore i have to say it was the general idea of FIRST that inspired me to do so. The people you meet are fantastic, an you can just be yourself; crazy, fun, serious, shy, outgoing. An i learned to connect more with people, an even get over my fear of public speaking. Now that was a great challenge to overcome! I can honestly say there is no little aspect of FIRST that inspired me, but it was learning, and being involoved with FIRST as a whole that has inspired me to do many things.