Favorite Memories Of The 2011 Season

[Alan Anderson]

I remember something that happened at lunchtime on Saturday at the Championship. It's not exactly my favorite memory, but it's certainly among the most...memorable.

Alliance selections had just finished and the team wasn't picked for the elimination rounds. The teachers arranged for pizza and we got everyone together in a sunny corner of an upstairs hallway for lunch. As we waited for the last few people to arrive, I overheard one student telling another something like "I know we didn't do very well, but it's still a lot of fun." A few minutes later, another student said basically the same thing to me and pointed out how happy (almost) everyone looked. Even with the robot's disappointing performance during the competition, the students were smiling and enjoying the time together.

Then a mentor got up to give a semi-motivational talk about "pushing on" and "getting through this" after not winning. When he was done, many of the students stood up and spoke about how much they were getting from the experience of being a team: working together, learning new skills, growing to be confident, things like that. The contrast between the mentor's focus and the students' actual attitude was remarkable, and I for one agreed fully with the students.