Hardest personal lesson learned?

[Billfred]

Opportunities will not always arrive at the most convenient times, but you have to be ready to capitalize on them when they do.

[Metonym]

I moved from making highlight reels and running AV setups at events to teaching people to do those jobs.

For highlight reels specifically, I problem was that I can't expect students to have all the knowledge I had when I was their age. I expected too much out of my volunteers because of how much I was able to do in the past. But I did manage to learn how to teach people the skills they needed to reach what I had done in the past. They learned enough to let me take a back seat and just work on other projects during DCMP, they are a great bunch of kids that I can't wait to work with again.

[caboosev11]

One of the hardest lessons I learned was the importance of maintaining communication and appreciation in the team.

In the last few days of build season, the stress started piling on. Things were said, feelings were hurt, things were misheard and misinterpreted, people felt unimportant, mistakes were made, and some people almost walked out.

We realized as things started boiling over and worked hard to help improve the situation. We eventually went on to have our best season ever.

Even today, as happy as I am that my team made it to Einstein for the first time ever, I still sit and think about the things that have happened. Clear communication is important. Appreciation is even more so. Make sure you all take a moment to thank your team-mates for just being there. Don't let the heat of things make you forget that your team should be a family.

[Carolyn_Grace]

I learned that some teams are a better fit than others, and that's okay. It's hard to leave teams that you have invested time in, especially when you adore the students, but sometimes it's for the best.

Joining 1024 was one of the best choices that I made, and I'm grateful that they recruited me to help. The team I left isn't a bad team, they just weren't a good match for me.

I also learned that it's okay to sit back, and watch how a team works before jumping in to get fully involved.

[Nightwing430]

The hardest lesson for me on my team was to appreciate everything that everyone has done on the team for this season. I am apart of build/drive team and did not realize how much our marketing team has done for us. We had a group meeting before Worlds to tell everyone that we appreciate what they have done so far for the team. At the Asheville district event we had a rough start to competition but eventually we figured it out.

In all because of all of this that has happened I believe we have grown better as a team and we made it to Worlds because of it!

[Michael Corsetto]

I've learned to focus my energies into my spheres of influence.

These past two years have been frustrating for me. I've watched FIRST split the Championship. California continues to stall on Districts. Our 24 FLL teams in Davis are nearly unanimously ready to quit due to poor local event structure.

I've barked up all those trees and quickly found that my feedback/advice for improvement is either unwelcome or falling on deaf ears.

I only have so many hours in a day. I've decided to focus my time on the students I can impact through my mentorship of 1678 and local leadership in the Davis community.

We are running summer camps based around Vex IQ to smooth out the transition to Vex IQ in the fall.

I've dropped off the local RPC, in favor of helping organize a local off-season FRC competition.

While it is hard to realize your feedback is not valued, it doesn't seem so hard when there are so many other groups and organizations that welcome your energy, experience and enthusiasm.

-Mike

[Shrub]

A thing I've learned every season is that I cannot do everything, nor can I be everywhere at once. Nobody can, so there's no reason I should expect myself to. It's not bad that I have to keep remembering that. It's just a process.

I've also finally learned how to prioritize school over FIRST. Next school year, I'll finally be in a state where I can mentor a team if I so choose and balance my schoolwork.

[Roboderp]

For me personally it was learning how to step back from my leadership in electrical and let my little ducklings learn how to do things hands on.

stepping back especially in your senior year is a difficult thing. Lets be real its your last year and you want to do everything and make the most of it. The look of confidence on the younger one`s faces when they realized they do know what they`re doing is priceless. i found It was much more rewarding to help develop the passion for STEM in another person over the season.

seeing someone else do the work that you would normally be doing is hard at times and there were times where i was sad and i felt like i didn't`t do much, but now that i look back at it i can see the passion that these people now hold that i helped instill. When you take a step back you can really appreciate how much FIRST impacts lives.

FIRST has taught me so many valuable lessons. My team members taught me how to be patient and kind (even though i wanted to hit them at times). They also taught me what real friends are. My mentors taught me that even though my family hasn't before me, i can go to college and that success stories aren`t just in fairy tales. my mentors also give me the resources i need to be successful. My team is my family and they have taught me so much that it would be too long winded to write it all. Leaving them is so bittersweet im proud of my team and im confident in the leaders for next year but ill miss seeing my family almost every day, ill still visit(and mentor in my professional years). even when i get older these people will always be in my heart.

Thank you to all of the mentors and students for changing my life.

[beurwonderwall]

The past four months have been simultaneously the best months of my life and the worst months of my life. And I learned that it's okay.

I learned that you won't always go to Championship.

I learned that FIRST is family.

I also learned that being on drive team is one of the most coveted positions on any team, but it is also one of the hardest.

To elaborate on all of my statements, this is season is my fourth and final FRC season as a student. I entered the season with huge hopes and huge fears; losing our two programmers to graduation was terrifying. I tried my best to learn from them over the summer, but, in the words of Coldplay, sometimes you try your best and don't succeed. I was the programming group leader, but I wasn't the best programmer and I learned that it's okay. My job was to offer support and guidance, not single-handedly program a robot by myself.

After attending Championship for three years in a row, I became very accustomed the idea of attending. I was so excited to go to St Louis. After our performance at FiM St Joseph, I could feel that dream slipping away. But then we went to FiM Lansing and we were picked as the second overall draft. We went home with the blue banner, but I knew we still had work to do. So, we moved on to FiM LSSU. We won Chairmans for the first time in my team's history. Personally, it was my ninth presentation and I was the only person sustained from the first presentation in 2014. I was so proud. I was excited for MSC.

I never thought I'd have to say that we won two blue banners, but didn't make it to Championship.

For awhile, I was bitter. I was sad and I wanted nothing more than to experience Championship as a drive team member.

But I learned that sometimes it's just not your time. Not everyone can go to Championship every year and this was our year to not go. It sucks, but all of the teams that went from Michigan deserved it so, so, so much. I'm so proud of the way Michigan showed at Championship. Am I sad my team couldn't be there? Yeah. But am I still bitter about it? No.

This post is getting super long-winded, but I wanted to touch on one more thing. One week before Lansing pits opened, my mom died. My team was absolutely amazing. Everyone was so supportive and was there for me in anyway I needed. Three of my teammates came over after I found out with food, card games, and hugs. I've never felt so blessed. That's when I learned FIRST is family.

So, if you read this, I learned a lot this season and I hope that my experiences inspire someone in some way, shape or form. If you're like me and didn't get to go to Championship this year, use that as your motivation next season. If at first you don't succeed, try again! When you do get to go, it'll be awesome. I promise.

[qscgy]

Don't try to do everything. You have to trust people under you to do things right.

[Karibou]

It takes 2-3 months for a fingernail to completely re-grow (link SFW). I've also learned exactly how frequently the middle and ring fingers of your dominant hand are used...

I had forgotten how crazy and intensive build season actually is. I'll be better prepared next year. Three (of several) specific lessons learned related to this:
- Functioning on <6 hours of sleep is much harder when you have a full time job AND mentor a team.
- I should probably buy a slow-cooker so my lunches don't suck during build season.
- Never skip dinner.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

In many ways, FIRST is about taking risks, making mistakes, and learning lessons the hard way. What is the hardest non-engineering lesson that you learned this year? Feel free to elaborate on HOW you learned it if you want.

Not to drive 2300 miles cross country to Las Vegas to work the regional on rapidly failing tires.

[ratdude747]

This season I learned that even as a key volunteer (scorekeeper), I am not the only person with my talents and if I can't make an event, given proper advanced notice, the show will go on. Not that this makes me feel "not special", but at least I can sleep at night a little bit easier.

[polytechnique]

I learned that it's extremely hard to overcome past reputations and bad first impressions. I have to assume the role of lead mechanic and team president next year, and I can barely think sometimes with the amount of social pressure that a less than savory past couple years of poor attitude and sociability created.

I learned to do my best to not let the little things get to me. Before I would just pop off at the smallest of things, somehow believing it was part of 'being an engineer' and how we 'love to argue.' I was just being a jerk to the people that I didn't need to be, and I regret it. I came from a background that left me extremely socially inept and unacclimated to a public high school climate, and I am paying for it. But sometimes the hardest thing is just keeping a head on my shoulders when half of my team bears down on me and won't let me go from past events and decisions that I just want to distance myself from.

And now I'm praying things will look up and that we can all work together to improve some of the deeper issues with our team, but it might be impossible when some of them drop progress and cooperation for drama and harassment over things that really shouldn't matter anymore.