Back in 2003, I was homeschooled and was involved in very few activities, but I always had a passion for science, technology, and "the way things work." Anway, so one night I was watching the Discovery Channel and saw a documentary about this thing called
FIRST Robotics. They followed three teams through the competition season. All I remember thinking is that it was really cool, and I would love to be involved some day, but I thought it was only for "that group" of super-elite young geniuses that I could never be a part of. Oh well. I quickly forgot about it and never thought I'd see anything about
FIRST again. Being very young at the time, I didn't remember detials such as team numbers and such. I just remembered it was called
FIRST, it was about robots, and the detailed rules to Stack Attack (not sure why I held onto those particular details).
Fast forward to 2007.
FIRST had grown significantly. I moved, and my parents decided it was time to let me out into the world with public high school. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I heard about a local
FIRST Robotics team. My mind went back to the Discovery Channel documentary from years ago. I didn't remember much, but I did remember that it was something I had liked and wanted to try. I decided to go to a meeting to check things out.
It is nerve-wracking to think of how close I was to not joining. I missed the official informational meeting at the beginning of the school year, and almost decided to just forget about the idea. Then, after going to a (rather boring) first meeting, I wondered if the program was worth 20+ hours/week of my time during this six-week period they called, "build season." In the end, though, I decided to stay and give the program a shot for one year. I now consider that to be the greatest decision of my life.
This past build season - my senior year and the last with my current team - couldn't have been a better cap. I got to see my team win its first ever Championship award - for the design of a component I was directly involved in creating. But perhaps the best part is, it took me until my senior year to realize that the team I was on - Team 339, "Kilroy" - was one of the three teams covered in the 2003 documentary. Yes, that very group of students and mentors I remember seeing on TV six years ago, wishing but never daring to believe that I could one day join their ranks, I am now a part of.
Needless to say, I no longer have doubts that
anything is possible, no matter how unlikely.
