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Re: Why do you FIRST?
Anyone who knows me knows first and foremost, I'm competitive and a big sports fan, plus I like problem solving. Those are in line with the FIRST experience, but they barely scratch the surface.
FIRST meant the world to me in high school, and it still does. I found a great community of like-minded friends. It set me on an amazing path to pursuing a major where I'm excited to go to class, studying at a school where I had never imagined I'd go. It took me from being a smart kid in middle school who liked getting good grades but didn't really feel a calling to a confident engineering student—capable of understanding failure, but never satisfied without success—ready to take on the world.
I continue with FIRST because I want it to become as important to someone I mentor as it has become to me ever since I first walked in the door to my high school's shop five and a half years ago. I see the power of FIRST as a life-changing program because I've felt it. It's so integral to who I am that it stings only being able to go to one competition per year (maybe two this time!). I still itch for kickoff and for competition, and from time to time I roll around impossible ideas about how I could maybe make it back for hometown Detroit champs next year.
Above and beyond it all is the unbelievable atmosphere FIRST maintains even at its size. FIRST reports to have around 400,000 students involved, meaning that, including parents, mentors and coaches, and volunteers, there are likely somewhere near three quarters of a million people under the FIRST tent, and yet the community still upholds the highest standards of character no matter where you go. I don't know of any other organization that can stop FIRST from cornering the market on the best people in the world.
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