(part II) We aim for the stars

[Ken Leung]

***The beginning of Part II***

Apprentices of Engineering, wizards of electronics, masters of mechanics, architects of robotics, guardians of gracious professionalism, champions of coopetition, raising stars of the new millennia, keepers of the FIRST flame, heroes of tomorrow, dreamers of the future… Welcome back :-). With all the silence around here 2 weeks ago, I thought that maybe all of you disappeared to a secret gathering plotting for world domination or something ;-).

All kidding aside, the truth is, it was a very difficult week for me. This is the first time I’ve missed Championship Event since Florida 1999, my rookie year of this program. I could almost picture the masses of students and adults coming in and out of the Georgia Dome, or the excitement of the MC, the announcer, and the crowd during the finals … But if someone were to ask me what the Championship event was really about, I would’ve said, “Inspiration, opportunity, revolution, promise, achievement, celebration, destiny, and a dream come true.” They might not believe me, but I am not wrong.

It may not seem like it now, but what you did this season was simply amazing. You didn’t have to spend so much time, lose so much sleep to work on your robot, but you did. Through sheer determination and hard work, you accomplished what normally would’ve taken a team of engineers to do; only, you’ve done it more successfully than they will ever be. I couldn’t be around this year, but I can guarantee that when you went home after the 5 days of championship event, you looked at yourself in the mirror and said, “Yes, this is definitely what I want to do with my time!”

But what’s even more amazing is that FIRST managed to give you all this. Started with nothing more than a dream and a hope, the fine folks of FIRST put together a program so important, so necessary, and so revolutionary that they achieved an impossibility that changed our lives forever. You may argue with the calls they made, or the games they designed, but you cannot argue against the fact that you were at Atlanta, Georgia, arguing along thousands of others who have just as much passion for the game, and just as much need for the program as you do. If you want to see miracle, then you should remember that we just witnessed a larger group of mentors, parents, teachers, engineers, philosophers, and scientist than anything we’ve ever seen working together to change the culture. And they didn’t just participate; they inspired others, each other, and themselves through this competition. Now that’s truly a miracle indeed, a miracle that happened because of a dream, and heroes who sacrificed their time and energy to make that dream come true.


Pretty soon we will leave the training wheel of FIRST to face the world alone… This may very well be hardest transition we will ever make in our lives, one that will lead to unknown challenges and unexpected difficulties. You may find yourself lost in the day to day issues, but pretty soon, that’s your entire life. So let me ask again, what do you want to do with your time?

There are many things in this world that will trick us to lose ourselves in the everydays. Perhaps our nature dictates that all we can do is look at little pictures one at a time. Perhaps the only way we can get people to think big is by deceiving them with money, power, and by fulfilling needs they thought they need. But I can’t accept that. Neither did FIRST. So let me ask one last time, what do you want to do with your time?

As a member of the human species, we have very limited time on earth, and we have a lot of choices to make. Don’t you think it is time to ask:

Where is our generation’s mission to the moon, or the fight for desegregation? How about our search for the new world, or the declaration of independence?
Who is our generation’s Neil Armstrong, or Martin Luther King Jr.? How about our Christopher Columbus, or Thomas Jefferson?
Do we just let the days go by without making a difference? Or do we dare being different and challenge things that are right not because they are right, because they haven’t been called wrong for a long time?

It’s been suggested that we can be told how to think, that us listening is better than us thinking for ourselves. But no one can do that. No one can do that because it is not their place to decide what we want to do with our time, our energy, and our mind. Those decisions are ours and ours alone. Our critical thinking skills are the only tools that will ever give us the answers we are looking for. We have the capacity to understand a problem, and create unique solutions for them. We have the most powerful tool in this world: our mind, which need constant sharpening and cannot be taken for granted, but nevertheless is capable of helping us to do the right thing. So we are going to have to make a lot of these choices: Who will be our heroes? What will be our dreams? What do we want to do with our time?


But every once in a while even the best of us need dreams to open our mind. We need dreams that will force us to expand our mind for just a second to imagine that there is something bigger out there, and help us to understand that even a group of simple music notes can form an extraordinary piece of symphony.

And every once in a while even the best of us need heroes to inspire us. We need heroes to give us courage us do what is not possible, what is not acceptable, and what is necessary for the good of our society. We need heroes to give us the vocabulary to express the deepest feelings we didn’t dare expressing in a world full of mediocrity and ordinary.

In times of need and loneliness, we look up at the stars and remember that under the same sky, our ancestors have asked the same questions we raised today, if not harder ones. In times of doubt and hopelessness, we look around at the world and are reminded that on top of the very same continent, our fathers overcame the same difficulties we face today, if not harder ones. Time and time again, we are shown that our species are capable of opening our minds to accept the unacceptable, of summoning boundless energy during time of crisis, of facing new frontiers and flourish during the adventures, and looked at fear itself and said: we are not afraid! We inherited our ancestor’s every hope, every value, every bit of courage, every ounce of strength, and every dream they’ve dreamed… And on top of their shoulders, we look at the stars knowing that not only it is necessary to dream our dreams, but that we have and will achieve them again.


And now that it’s our turn to face the forks of life, we know we are ready to make our choices... But please,

Don’t choose your hero because they will just teach you with their abilities, but also because they will also teach you with their mistakes. Don’t choose your hero because they make you feel insignificant and imperfect, but because they show you who you are capable of becoming, and what accomplishments you are going to achieve!

Don’t choose a dream because others told you to, but because it is the sum of your ideals, hopes, and passions. Don’t choose a dream because it gives us the appearance of dreamers, but because that dream is going to be the very essence of what will motivate to make that dream come true some day!

Don’t choose to aim for the stars because they mark the peak of our abilities, don’t choose to aim for the stars because it is easy, choose to aim for the stars because it shows the depth of our potential; choose to aim for the stars because it is hard!

Because when you have done that, you can look back to our history at George Washington, at Thomas Jefferson, at Abraham Lincoln, at Sir Isaac Newton, at Albert Einstein, at Galileo Galilei, at Christopher Columbus, at Neil Armstrong, at Mohammad Gandhi, at Martin Luther King Jr. with our heads held high, and say: We are the heir of our ancestors’ dreams and wisdom, we are members of the human species, and we aim for the stars today!


There’s evil in the world, there’ll always be disasters and tragedy, and we can’t do anything about that. But there are conflicts in our unity, and neglected in our society, and we can do something about that. There’s not enough character, discipline, and depth in our culture, and there aren’t enough, not nearly enough thinkers, teachers, problem solvers, and leaders in our world, and we can do something about that. We are not doing nearly enough, not nearly enough, not nearly enough to inspire and educate our children, and we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better, and we choose to aim for the stars today!

Congratulation with all your achievement this season, and may you discover your heroes and your dreams someday!

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Thank you for everything Ken. You couldn't have summed up the goals of this program better.

[Arefin Bari]

Ken... I know how you feel about not attending the championship for the first time. Trust me, you were missed. It would feel like I was being tortured if I were to miss the championship.

... The way you are writing Ken, this can be a book (did you think about publishing it?), which is VERY cool.

[Daniel Brim]

Ken, I wish I could spotlight this whole post. It's that good. Curse you character limit! Thank you for this wonderful read.

[Ken Leung]

This is the 2nd part I promised to write after this message: We aim for the stars (Part I) (Just in case you missed it). It took me longer than I thought it would, but it's finally done, which I didn't think was possible at all! Need to catch up on my rest ;-), so I will do the replies later.

[tiffany34990]

i was waiting for this..and well it's perfect timing..start of my IB testing..and i'm just drowning in stress...thanks for the great words on life always...

i agree with arefin you should write a book...

i think my ib class needs to read your words..i'm sure it'll make an impact on many of them just like it has on me...

i'm not sure where my life will end up but i know that FIRST and this community sure has taught me many things that'll never forget....

thank you and thanks to everyone else in FIRST...

[Steve W]

Even though you have left FIRST ( ) you still provide great insight into all of life, not just FIRST. Are you sure that you are gone? Can't you feel the tug? You know that you were meant to be part of this great program. It's OK to stand outside to get a breath of fresh air, just make sure that the door doesn't close! You are missed.