Your Best FIRST Experience

[jpsaul7usa]

My favorite FIRST moments haven't come from any competitions or during travel, they were all in our workshop (team members' parents' garage), around 2AM during the last two weekends before the ship date. I would stay late, work on the bot, talk about the robot and the game with another weary eyed person, and nearly fall asleep wrenching or wiring something. Those were the days...

[Barry Bonzack]

The days of nationals gave me some of the best memories of my life thus far. FIRST will be an unforgettable experience for sure.

[JoeXIII'007]

The BEST FIRST Experience...

Taking over a small city (Grand Rapids), finding nerds EVERYWHERE, then
taking over a HUGE city (Atlanta, GA), finding geeks EVERYWHERE, and at both cities, trying to get small groups of people to respond to our 'AY!" It was fun all day and all night till the very last hour of the very last day of competition. Too sweet!

[sanddrag]

For me, I would have to say the entire Phoenix regional in 2003. It was totally awesome. The regional still is just as awesome, it's just this year our robot wasn't quite as much.

[Jeff Waegelin]

My best FIRST experience has to be qualifying for Nationals in 2002. We started the year with a shoestring budget, no place to work, and not qualified for Nats. Through incredible teamwork and dedication, we managed to pull everything together, win the Buckeye Regional, and qualify to attend Nationals. Hands down, that was my best FIRST experience ever.

If you want to know more, check out my FIRST Historians story, "A Special Championship", about the subject:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=22407

[MrToast]

Any time the robot broke and I got to fix it was the best FIRST experience. It's really awe inspiring how some guys you've known for about 10 minutes that come from halfway across the country will bend over backwards to help you get your robot fixed. Absolutely incredible!

For example, during the semifinals of BattleCry 5, the clutch on one of our drill motors broke and we would've been out of commission if 1027 hadn't graciously donated us a new drill motor. Talk about GP! We had about 20 minutes to our next match, and we were able to get the old drill out, take it apart, install the new clutch, and get it back together in time for the next match! Many hands make light work and close quarters in a robot. But all that aside, I love plunging my hands into the innards of a robot in order to improve it and make a truly competitive machine. It gives me a feeling of power knowing that the fate of the matches rests in the repairs my hands make.

Dude, I love FIRST.

MrToast

[RBrandy]

My best FIRST experience is when I heard the name "Sean Schuff" come from the emcee's mouth at the St. Louis Regional this year. Then telling him he was a Woodie Flowers award finalist on the phone because he couldn't be there because of his newborn son, Noah. He jumped in a car later that night and came down because he wanted to be with his team so bad. If that isn't dedication, I don't know what is.

[melissa]

I think my Best FIRST experience is not just one single experience...but the entire time since i joined my team. MOE is comprised of 14 different highschools, and when I joined my freshman year I was the only person from my school...and I didn't know anyone. Now going into my third year on the team I have really found people who I can trust and rely on...and I have made some great friendships. The best part about that is I wouldn't have known any of them if i hadn't joined the team. It's not like I will see them in school everyday or at a school function...but we all came together...past school rivalries and the traditional school separation...to become a team. Just to see all of these people who normally wouldn't notice eachother grow and spend so much time together that we've become like a "family" is one of the things that I like best about FIRST. So no, I don't have one best experience... because every time I walk into a meeting or go to a competition, I learn something new...about the robot...or about myself. Before I start going on and on haha...My best experience would be everything (yes i really can make a decision lol).

[oretta.flood]

[quote=Lisa Perez]So.. What was yours?

Hello. This is my first year of being on my Robotics team and attending events. Team 1114 has been to two regionals this year and will be attending GTR this weekend. Both events had been my favourite experiences. They are amzing. The energy, the team spirit, the antisapation, seeing your robot work and accomplish exactly what your highest hopes for it were. These events are like no other and Im glad that I got involved.

Im so proud of my team. We all worked together and acomplished alot.
2006 Great Lakes Champs (1503, 1114, 67)
2006 Waterloo Regional Champs (1114, 1503, 1281)
2006 Waterloo Regional Chairmans Winners

Winning Chairmans was such a great Highlight to the weekend.
~Loretta

[KenWittlief]

Ive been a mentor on teams sponsored by three different corporations. Without taking anything away from the other two I have to say:

the year I was an X-Cat was the best. They have won the chairmans award twice for good reason. In that one year alone, so many things went well

a few of us had a mantra that year, "more teams! more teams!...." and now Xerox sponsors several teams

we really pushed for a regional in Rochester, NY - and for the last two years Xerox has been a primary sponsor of the Finger Lakes Regional at RIT.

But most of all, the impact the team had on the student's lives was excellent.

[lukevanoort]

Initial testing this year. When it was finally proven to some doubting mentors that a six wheel drive works and only our second time ever (as far as I know) that we managed a full systems test prior to the competition.

[Tetraman]

This is truely what FIRST is all about. At the Buckeye Regional this year, me and my team were really into just cheering for anything. We cheered for 93 just cause we liked the number, we cheered when our robot fell over, we cheered for 703 and actually got them into cheering for their team, we even cheered chants of teams that wern't at the regional like 1559 and 250.

The other team at the Regional from New York was team 1230, and they could only bring 5 team members and about 5 mentors. So we adopted them and cheered for them when their team was out on the field. We had such a time just cheering, it as so fun. We didn't even care if we got any Team Spirit award (which was the origional plan to begin cheering), we just enjoyed it and the time we were there.

We got into the finals, and each time our team was called, all 10 or 12 members of the team that were there from 1230 stood and clapped for us. We never expected and never thought that a team would thank us like that. It seems so small to most people, but to each member of my team and to each member of 1230, we felt real sportsmanship, gratious professionalisum, and Team Spirit between us. Team 174 is always going to cheer for team 1230 from now on in honor of the most amazeing experience of FIRST I've ever seen.

[dubious elise]

With my team, between the late-night drive-team icings, "Ricky Taco", head shavings, and incredible build-season learning opportunities, I think that there have been too many great experiences to count.

I think that my best out-of-team FIRST experience was meeting Mr. and Mrs. Ritchie at the Boilermaker Regional this year. I was so surprised that they had remembered a post that I made when their family was going through such a rough time last year and how I had rustled up some donations to send down to help. It was a pleasure to meet them and to work with Mrs. Ritchie's team, 393 - hopefully our paths will cross again in the future. This chance meeting truly reminded me what a family, not just FIRST, but the CD community is.

[thatphotochick]

i've had so many experiences within the past 2 years of FIRST, it's hard to even name half of them, and we're not even to the Championship in Atlanta yet this year. All the dance parties on the field in pittsburgh this year was awesome, when 1038 decided to join 365 for the 'we like to party' dance, that was so much fun. last year in atlanta, hanging out with 1567 in our hotel, having our own party just floors up from a prom in our hotel. and the biggest..both seasons, just watching the teamwork of building a robot together, being able to accomplish something..and that goes for every team. it's amazing to me that 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, even 60 people can come together and make a robot together...or that same amount of people helping other teams to fix their robots

[techtiger1]

There are many great FIRST experiences I have had over the three years I have been in FIRST. Including three very well lets just say interesting build seasons, 2 regional finalist awards, a semifinalist award, judges award, creativity award and 2 trpis so far to Nationals which have all been amazing. My favorite experience though was at UCF our rookie year in 2004 with 9 teams members, a mentor and a few parents we won the rookie all-star award which really suprised us and got us a trip to nationals. From then on 1251 and everyone on the team that year has been hooked on FIRST robotics. Winning was great and we didn't realize it yet but we had embarked on something that changed the way we viewed the world.

Thanks FIRST,
Drew