Crazy about FIRST?

[Ken Leung]

Last season I went to the Sacramento regional having absolutely no idea what's going to happen to me. Almost went nuts learning about scoring on the fly. Every night before I went to bed I had a heart attack. Sleep time ranged from 2 hours to 2 hours 5 mins.

A week or so later I some how ended up at Phoenix, Arizona. I had several near death experience when 980's light saber robot started their autonomous mode near the scoring table. My life flashed in front of my eyes several times. To the present I still have no memory of how I made it there, how I managed to have fun, and how I left that regional gaining more than I thought I would.

I went back home hopping to relax, but ended up stressing out at the Silicon Valley regional working the scoring system with Wetzel. I barely have any recollection of how I got this trophy thing on my desk. The best part about that week was rest came easily every night. It was really fun because a lot of old friends from the past showed up at that competition watching me stressed out.

A week later, I found myself on a car driving down to Los Angeles after I swore I will never go to that regional again. Apparently that didn't matter, so once again I am next to the field chatting with FIRST staff and watching the game. By the time I was a walking zombie. Someone told me I was great at break dancing on Friday night, but I KNOW I cannot dance. I think they are just messing around.

I thought that's the worst it could get. 2 weeks later, I was so overwhelmed by how big the Reliant Stadium I almost cracked down in tears when I first went inside. There were lots of good walk between the fields and the pits, but the most fun I had was sitting on one of the carts FIRST staff used to go back to the field after breakfast. There were lots and lots of people but I don't remember any of them. Strange.

By the end of that I went in a coma for 2 months. As soon as I woke up I was sitting next to the scoring table at Indiana Robotics Invitational. It was 6am local time. I woke up at the table and realized a camera was pointing at me. Everyone shouted "START!" and I panicked. I couldn't get the match started and everyone saw me threw my hands up acting really frustrated on the morning TV show. Hey, any publicity is good publicity.

When I got back from IRI I was so overwhelmed by the experience and excitement it took me 2 weeks to calm down. My friends thought it would be a good idea for me to do some FIRST-related exercise to slowly ease away from the FIRST addiction. I found out a month later those exercise only get more and more intense. As I get closer and closer to the California Robot Games at the end of September, I found my addiction to FIRST the strongest ever. The night before was an all-nighter, and 30 mins after the award ceremony I lost all memory of what I said when I handed out the rookie awards. Someone hit me really hard on the head. Reality as I knew it didn't exist anymore. By 9pm Saturday night, I am only aware of the universe 5 inches around my existence. Only darkness exist beyond the 5 inch barrier. There was a constant buzz in my ear through out the weekend.

...

To this day I still do not remember anything that happened. I am able to piece out the description above because I found pieces of notes and evidence here and there from my laptop computer. I had to dig through AIM messages, and random journal I didn't know existed in "my document". My cell phone bill shows all kind of call made around the country.

Let this be a warning to those who follow my footstep. DO NOT let your addiction to FIRST control your life! Or you will find yourself waking up at a scoring table in some distant states you've never been to before.