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Unread 23-06-2002, 22:12
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: Pontiac, MI
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My story, and be warned, it's really rather long

Posted by Lora Knepper at 1/1/2001 8:23 AM EST


Other on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / Boston College High School and Seeking Sponsorship.


In Reply to: Re: why why why...?
Posted by Justin on 12/31/2000 11:18 AM EST:



'...I've always been all about technology, taking things apart (though not always getting them back together...FIRST was/is the one place in my life, more then any other, that I feel I really fit in...ppl don't look at you funny for being a geek/techie...because they all are. Prior to FIRST I had never had that kind of place. I think as anyone who's done FIRST knows once ur hooked you're hooked. I keep going back for the competitions (you never _truly_ expirence FIRST until you go to one). I go back for the people the ppl I've met through FIRST are some of the greatest ppl I know...both peers and mentors. I also keep going back for that emotional feeling that you get when the field is unvailed or Dean/Wooide steps up to the microphone...it's like all the hair our your back is standing up but you're teary eyed @ the same time. ...Because there is simply NOTHING else like it on the planet.'

Well, I read Justin's post and it was exactly what I was going to say. I've always been the outcast of society...too different to fit in, and never really caring what was the accepted 'norm'. I was a girl that shunned the world of Barbie and other dolls, hated the idea of anything frilly, pink, pastel or anything that had a bow, and instead found a passion for Legos, Transformers, Lincon Logs, the Discovery Channel, and making the dream car I plan to get some day a Dodge RAM pickup. Not to mention taking things apart to see how they work, and like Justin, not always mamaging to get them back together! ;o)

And since then it's only gotten worse ;o) I got to high school after a particulary rough (understatement) 3 years in middle school. I was hoping for a change, something to say that I could enjoy school again. My freshman english teacher told us daily that we needed to 'go out and find something to join, don't just waste our air in this school, become a part of it.' Then one day I heard an announcement for something called FIRST Robotics. Robots?!? I was facinated, and wanted to go but almost didn't because I thought it was for seniors only. I'm very glad I didn't make that mistake. From the first video, I was hooked...and I've never looked back.

It was rough on my team that first year. I was a freshman, and a girl...2 things that just mark you for problems in a world dominated by high school guys. I worked quietly in the backround, I was the webmaster and learned all I could, though I wanted a piece of the action on the bot itself. It was my coach, to whom I owe everything, that pushed me to try out for driver. I thought he was crazy, why should I humiliate myself by even trying?!? But I owed them my trip to nationals because I am from a low income family, so I thought that trying was the least I could do. So need I even say I was shocked when I was made driver?

Over the next three years, it has never really gotten any easier. I'm still the girl that enjoys hanging out with the guys more, dreams of that Dodge RAM, and got Legos for Christmas ). But (yes, I know I babbled to get to this point), in FIRST, I've found a place where I'm not the oddity...I'm the norm. And having a place to belong is something I've never had before, and people who understand me something so different it's hard for me to believe. All of my friends that have stuck by me are FIRST-ers except one...who I will get into FIRST if she goes to WPI ;o) (Kate, Colleen and Jon, beware!) I met the love of my life at Nationals (and I figure he'll read this b/c he haunts these boards as well ;o), and I've found a career in engineering that will let me explore who I am, and really enjoy what I'll do for the rest of my life.

FIRST is a feeling, a state of mind, and a gathering of incredible people. Without it, I'm afraid to think of where I would be today. I've warned college admissions staff that if they do not have a FIRST team, and do not want one, then they better just give me a rejection letter now. Though I love the engineering side, I know it's the people that keep me coming back. The people who believe in something so much that they brave 6-weeks without sleep, consider Mountain Dew one of the finest drinks mankind has ever created, and run around at competitions doing things that every other person on the planet would consider the sign of severe mental illness. )

For me, it has not come down to 'WHY'...but rather 'WHY WOULD I EVER STOP???' or even more correct, 'WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT FIRST??'

~ Lora
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