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Keep the Focus
Normally you won't see my posts in a debate such as this, but I would like to give the students my perspective. Nationals, the Championship, whatever we call it; it was inevitable that we would have to qualify. So it is here sooner, oh well. I still say that the FIRST experience is mostly in the 6 weeks (or 6 months in some team's cases; we have been having meetings since the start of September). I have students by my side 6 days a week, 2 to 12 hours per day. We are designing, discussing, cutting parts, revising parts, testing, analyzing, drinking lots of Dew, and sometimes cleaning. The experience and exposure that the students on 217 get is something I could have never imagined possible and THAT, my friends, is what matters. Sure, the competitions are fun, but the competitions aren't FIRST; we are FIRST. We can make the FIRST experience worthwhile or we can make it worthless. One last thing, if the travel is the part you are missing, go to the Toronto regional. West coast teams go to the Midwest regionals or East Coast regionals, East Coast and Midwest teams go to the West Coast regionals. There are plenty of opportunities to travel, not just Nats.
-Paul
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