Sad Day for Seniors

[mtaman02]

I share my feelings with all of you. It is very hard to go from FIRST status student to FIRST status Mentor. Your so used to driving or shooting pt. balls and now you become the one to teach the driving and shooting pt. balls / bins for that matter. ---- I should know i'm still going through it all. and i've not been on a team since 2002. and been an alumni since then.

I was only apart of a FIRST team for about a year in a half and I played many roles for that team ( Captain, Back-Up Arm Pilot, Sponsorship Leader, Assistant Spokesperson, Assistant Mechanic and possibly one or two more roles ).

I realized I was going to be graduating when the coaches reminded me in may 2002 at PARC that I would have to select a new captain to take on my responsiblities. And theirs nothing harder then to select a successor to fill in and improve what you have done.

The good side to all of this is you can still be a Mentor of that team, you can Mentor other teams and spread what you have learned sorta like " Passing the camcorder around so that the next Chairmans Award Winner is selected ", your team will always welcome your presence anywhere they may be, they consider you the school and team alumni (which is automatically) and you could be considered their best MVP Player.

*starts rant here :\ )
Thats why it so imperitive that kids join during their freshman year that way they can have a full 4yrs of FIRST and not be barred by classroom achievements (e.g. must sustain a 75% grade average to remain on the team). Some schools choose to make this a curiculum others choose it to be an after school activity. This is a Organization that the only requirement needed to be met should be the talent that you contain and can share with fellow members and not have to worry about a grade average. Having a grade average can either strive students to work harder or scare them away knowing they can't sustain it.
*end rant here :\ )

For the FIRST Graduating class of 2004 - Congradulations in not only making your team the best to participate on, but by also proving to your teachers that though you may not do your HW in class you still manage to make time to do Deans HW. :-) (This may not make sense but oh well )

Who knows - maybe all of the alumnis and their corresponding schools will adopt a rookie and at least complete Deans easier assignment hehe!