2013 Lessons Learned: The Positive

[PayneTrain]

I want to talk more about it later, but I just want to ask a question:

Can you feel it?

Teetering on the edge of it all, solemnly looking below at how far we could fall while we focus on the horizon beyond and imagining how far we can fly. It sounds cushy and whatnot, but I mean it. This is serious business.

For the better part of the last few years, I felt that FIRST was more or less going through the motions. More teams, more events, different games, Dean tells teams get in contact with alumni and senators and start more teams. The program has felt like it was in a bit of a rut, going nowhere.

I know this may seem like a touchy subject, but you could feel the fire in Dean Kamen all throughout that dome on Friday. He has had to bury his father and brother in the span of a few years. He is not the spry 40-year old that founded FIRST so long ago, nor is he just some little guy from Brooklyn with a few crazy ideas up his sleeves.

Time is short for everything. It is short for Dean, it's short for me, it's short for all of us... but it was also short for this organization until it recommitted itself to not just changing the culture, but being an active participant in it all.

I don't want to live in a place where I still have to explain FIRST to people in 20 years. We can't afford to let this be the best kept secret much longer. FIRST is quickly reaching a critical mass where it will either consume the hearts and minds of a lot of people or remain stuck in neutral forever until it withers away. The organization needs to be bigger. More people need to know.

I am excited about all of that very much.

Is there a video of the opening ceremonies anywhere?