Seniors

[SPHogan]

I honestly feel like the past year flew by me.

My team started my Junior year with Rebound Rumble. Unfortunately our joining of FIRST was pretty last-minute, and I had already made commitments to other organizations that I couldn't break. Nonetheless I tried my best to help when I could. Our team was big, and excitement was in the air at our school thanks to this new and interesting group. We finished 7th place at the Saint Louis Regional, which was beyond our expectations.

Fast forward a year. We lost all of our programmers, either to graduation, moving, or inactivity. As a rookie team with a lot of excitement, this wasn't expected at all. Also, our team seemed to decrease in size quite a bit. I guess the novelty wore off. I volunteered to head programming, having never touched LabView or having programmed anything before (to be fair, nobody on our team at that point knew programming).

So yeah, it was hard. Learning the ropes while helping our other departments was stressful at times. The glamour had disappeared. For Rebound Rumble, everyone was interested in FIRST. We had newspaper articles written on us, video PSAs filmed, people watching the live stream at Chaifetz Arena to see how we were doing. We had none of that for Ultimate Ascent.

Nonetheless, I consider the past season one of the most memorable times of my life. I learned so much, made new friends, and had a blast while doing it. It's saddening that my school only started my Junior year. I would've liked to done more! It was stressful at times, but it was a life changing experience. Now that I'm done for good, I'm trying to contribute to next year's team as much as I can. I'll be far out of state for college, so I want to do everything possible in the time I have.

So I guess it's bittersweet. I hate to leave after the great times I had, but I'm eager to see what's in store for myself, my team, and any other teams I should stumble upon.