East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest FIRST

[Keith Chester]

Many of you are wondering how the posts of pictures from "IRI" in Aignam's (and Big Mike's) very hotel room pertain to FIRST, and why they're kept on Delphi.

When 25 was at the competition, we competed as we always have- aiming to have fun over winning, and making new friends constantly.

Yet when we got back after a disappointing first day at IRI, our 4 non parental members all headed back to Aignam's room - followed by practically the rest of FIRST.
With people from the high northeast, mid east, mid west and far west all in one hotel room, we had the time of our lives simply by sitting there.

It was then that I realized something.
This easy world of friends, of people that you can talk to for hours on end without knowing one another? That's FIRST.
The robots? That's all second to this.

East? West? Mid-west? Did we even realize that we lived literally up to 1000 miles away from eachother? No, we just had fun. Did we realize that some of our teams were going to cross paths one day, only one emerging victorious? No, there was just the fun. Did any one of us even think twice about where the other came from? Nope. Just a heckuvalotta fun.