[Otaku]

Getting the Regional Inspirational Engineering Award at Davis.

Actually, the best part was HOW we got it.


So, it's Sunday (Sunday? Saturday? I don't remember. Last day of the regional.) and we're sitting up there in the stands. Because I'm a scout/machinist, I've been watching other teams bots the whole time and when the announcers begin to read out the description for an award, I guess the team.

Our team was pretty sure we'd get the safety award. One of my friends was quite disappointed that we had put so much effort into everything and still didn't get to go to Atlanta. I told him "What if we don't get safety and we get the Engineering award instead?". He wrote the question off and continued to be disappointed.

Anywho, the announcer started to read the paper for the engineering award and I begin to think "Gee, this team has done a lot. Heck, they even went to NUMMI like we did." The announcer continued, giving more hints. After he mentioned how old the team was, I kept thinking it was 670 or somebody REALLY close to us. One of my teammates (the person who talked to the announcers or whoever about our team) was convinced that it was us (what they said was almost verbatim apparently).

The announcer said "Six". I paid closer attention. Still thinking it was 670.

The announcer said "Seven". Still thought it was 670. I was ready to stand up and applaud a team that we had been on good terms with for two years and had acheived quite a bit.

The announcer said "Five".

I swear, it was almost as if a human explosion of cheering, laughing, crying and love burst out all around me. In a stupor (quite literally) some of us were crying, we were all hugging each other, stumbling over one another, not knowing how to feel or react and just letting emotions take over.

Now, lets pause here.

My team didn't know that you were invited to Atlanta for that. So we were happy that we acheived something big, but the best news hadn't come yet.

Resume...

So we all begin to run down there, watching the other teams stand and applaud us, giving us high-fives as we run/jog/walk past them, and I'm thanking each and every one of them on the way. We get down to the field, accept our trophies and medals, and go back to where we were sitting, all celebrating and happy.

Apparently one of the judges said to one of our mentors "Good luck in Atlanta".

That's when the REAL crying began.

I swear, I was crying for about two hours after that. No joke. My Dad and step-mom who already left got a phone call, my sister got a phone call, my mother was there (to watch me become overflowed with emotion), and when we got down to the pits more crying and hugging and cheering and such continued.

We then went out front and all talked about Atlanta, the award, etc, taking tons of photos with our awards and the team and such.


So yeah. That's my most memorable FIRST moment. While being in Atlanta was really fun (but a LOT of work -- I was suprised! Being a scout was hard enough as it is, so it's a good thing that the build team (mainly Blake and myself) built the chassis so well that I didn't have to fix it), I'd say that it definately didn't top the satisfaction of finding out we were going in the first place.

-Mike