FIRST vs. Engineering?

[George1902]

to me, the root of this issue is this: What is FIRST?

i get asked this question all the time by lots of different people, and here's the answer i give.

in high school, if you really like athletics, you can play football, baseball or such. if you like music you can be in marching or concert band. if you like english you can be in journalism. what is there for the kids who like math and science? really, there are only so many quiz bowl competitions a kid can handle. so, there's FIRST, an extra curricular activity for cultivating math and science.

now to answer your question more directly, does being in FIRST mean you want to be an engineer? most certainly not! my experience in FIRST is probably the reason i'm *NOT* in school for engineering now. i saw what the job entailed and decided that it wasn't what i wanted to do with my life.

i got something totally different from my FIRST experience. to me the spirit of FIRST is all about sharing. during the 6 week build period, you share yourself with the 5, 10, 20, or 50 other people on your team. at the competition, you share your creation with everyone who watches your 'bot play the game. and the whole while we're involved in this concept of sharing called gracious professionalism. so, i took that to heart and decided to share knowlege for a living. i'm in school now to be a high school math teacher.

so... um... where was i? oh yeah... so, no. of course you don't have to be in engineering or even like engineering if you like FIRST. i think the thing to do is to find what it is about FIRST that you like so much and find a way to get paid for doing that the rest of your life.

someone really smart once said, "If you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life."