Advice for Rookie You?

[Vale]

Alright, I can't resist threads like this, so here is a slightly excessive trail of advice.

You should not sacrifice your health for this.

As much as you want to, and I know you will, you seriously need to know when to take a break. You are still transitioning into high school, and we both know you have this tendency to try to occupy yourself as much as possible. This is more than just a program to you, but you need to make sure that you are okay.

Let things flow naturally.

You are luckily going to grow as a person, by a lot, which is to say that you will see differences in the way you conduct yourself. I'm not going to lie to you and say that you are quite qualified to be a leader at this point, because you aren't, not fully. But, you will discover this convenient ability to talk to parents and young children. Thank the library for that, but also our outreach events.

Feed your urge to learn.

You aren't going to grow out of your rookie stage, not in terms of genuine interest of learning, or sheer awe of teams, but you will chill down in some regards. There are tons of resources out there, including ones in development, as you know quite well. There are communities and people out there, albeit, not always the kindest. You don't need to post, but hey. Posting was never required.

Mess-ups are okay, if you admit them.

So, this is something both applicable to the team and Chief Delphi. Your first post will likely be a misinterpretation of the rules that will be responded to. That's fine. You admit the mistake, and move on with life. But as time passes, you will want to post more as you begin to envy people's post counts. Then you realize that post count doesn't mean THAT much, neither does the number of green dots. In the larger scheme of things, you will soon recognize who can help with your problems.

Don't be afraid to talk to people.

I probably don't need to remind you this, because you are exceptionally good at using online chats for this. Real life is kinda nice though. The "friend other teams at outreach and shirt trade strategy to keep contact" was A++! You will find yourself increasingly networking with people on your own. The biggest supporter of this will honestly be Twitch Chat for regionals, followed by Chief Delphi and just straight-up adding people on Facebook. You, my dear duckling, will be surprised by who you become friends with through that last option.

You were right about scouting.

Yep. You volunteered to scout at the off-season you attended around the time of making your account. Thank Karthik for the Simbot Seminar on Scouting and Match Strategy. Watching that live online actually inspired you to start scouting. It still remains your favorite part about being on a team, though you still like going down and talking to people.

Finally, though not on the list, is that Idaho is awesome, especially when there's Tators involved.