We aim for the stars (Part I)

[activemx]

Well said ken. Thanks for dropping by.

[KathieK]

Thank you for that reminder - I, too, get caught up in the little frustrations and sometimes forget to see the bigger picture (I'm a detail person!)... But you should have warned us to grab the box of tissues before reading!

[Arefin Bari]

Ken you do still remember the conversation we had right?

Arefin: Ken, you know you won't be able to quit FIRST, why try?
Ken: watch me Arefin, I will.
Arefin: Can't just wait to see you back again so I can just remind you what I am telling you now.
Ken: ok.

... that was our conversation couple months ago, when you didn't believe me that you will be back. Looks like we all have the answer. You can ignore the best thing in your life, FIRST, just like some of us here can't.

Good to have you back man.

[Ken Leung]

Thank you everyone, thank you for your support . I can't believe people actually finish these messages I write. I thought most would hit their head to keep themselves from falling asleep, but I guess I am wrong. The truth is, I've never had so much fun writing this kind of messages. To be able to express that 5 seconds of thrill I experience everytime I read, or hear, or see something amazing is a very hard thing to do. I hope I will always maintain the urge to write messages like this as time goes on.

Now, if I only have the slightest clue on how to write the second part.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

May I advise that you give yourself time to write the next part?

What is most important is that you speak from yourself and from experience. How your job goes, how life with a bit less participation in Regional stuff goes, how whatever goes will all change what you want to impart on people. Just remember, there are a million and one FIRSTers who don't know what you know now. Teach us something cool! Yah!

- Genia

[omutton]

That was amazing Ken! I read that two times over just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I want to personally thank you for writing that. That is the type of post these forums needed. I myself can get caught up on the little things without looking at the big picture. That message made me stop and think about why I am in this program and what it really means to me.

Also, you chose a perfect time to post, right before the Championship event. The next week is going to be full of emotion, sometimes good sometimes bad and I hope everyone reads Ken's post so that they too can realize why they got involved in this amazing program and think about what FIRST really means to them.

Thanks again!

[Conor Ryan]

First off welcome back Ken, yeah you are right about this. A second point about this is (Ken made a ton of great points) Don't forget to have fun. Its why we all signed up in the first place. FIRST wouldn't be what it is today if we didn't have fun, so go ahead be happy.

You could always say FIRST stands for Fun, Inspiration, Respect, Science, and Technology, since all of those are pretty much the commandments of First anyway.

Be Inspired.

[Will Hanashiro]

Hey there Ken, your posts never cease to amaze me. Thanks for taking your time to write quality, I will take it to heart.

[Josh Hambright]

Well Ken I thank you for gracing us once again with your presence, and I thank you for sharing your thoughts, always one to point out what many have been thinking and always one to smack us upside the head when we all get out of hand sometimes and remind us of the big picture. Once again thank you for all that you have done for FIRST and for CD over the years, and i look forward to part 2.

[Rich Kressly]

Ken,

As always your voice is a very important one here. It seems as though we went through the build season in strong fashion, but once the regionals started it became easy to focus on the winning and losing. These thoughts and feelings understandably become magnified when you consider how hard we all work at FIRST activities.

All of the best teachers and coaches I've had in my life constantly stressed the importance of what we are doing beyond the "game" we play. I could list the names here, but the important thing is that ALL competitions, in the end, are really with yourself - striving to be better, raise the bar, play the "perfect" game, doing things the "right way" especially when no one else is looking...

Along this path are many pitfalls. We live in a society (well, those of us in the US anyway) where parents in many communities are forced to sign codes of conduct in order to attend their child's youth baseball games. It's sad, but it's true, that a significant portion (not the majority, but a significant percentage) of our adult population does not know how to behave in public, ESPECIALLY when it's to attend a child's event or competition. The only appropriate word here in my mind is "pathetic". The more people we involve in FIRST through growth, the more we will need to nuture people away from the unfortunate trends we see in society.

I've spent a big chunk of my adult life structuring organized athletic programs for young people. Although I've been competitive and stressed commitment to kids, I'd also like to think I've always thought about how much involvement was appropriate at certain age levels. I'd also like to think I keep the big picture in mind. Does T-Ball really need to begin at Age 6? Does a 9-year-old really need to play a 30 game traveling soccer schedule? If these activities are deemed appropriate and if we are going to spend all of this time, money, and effort in programs that are supposedly for the kids, who's going to keep the big picture in mind for these groups and prevent adults from getting angry with each other for stupid reasons? FIRST is not immune to any of this.

If the adults with all of this involvement and investment in these programs choose to act like jerks, we are in trouble. The basic message is this - Just because you spend a lot of time, money, and effort doing something, that doesn't give you the right to misbehave. In fact, you've got an obligation, because of your position, to provide a role model example for others to follow and you need to take that obligation seriously at all times.

If we (adults, mentors, coaches) aren't here to teach young people the right way to live life through these activities, the kids would be MUCH better off if they would organize their own ball games AND robot building in their own neighborhoods as far away from the adults as possible.

Fortunately, FIRST is filled with postive adult role models who are making a positive difference for the future. The rest of us just need to recognize that, be aware of it at all times, and consciously work at changing the culture instead of allowing the negative elements of popular culture to seep into FIRST.

I told myself that my post was going to be brief. Oops. Thanks Ken.

[KenWittlief]

Come dance with the west wind
and touch all the mountain tops
sail over the canyons
and up to the stars

Reach for the heavens
hope for the future
all that we can be
not what we are

-J. Denver

This generation, the students reading CD today, will be part of humanitys first attempts to literally reach for the stars. We have the ability to start sending probes out to the nearest star systems, to survey the neighborhood

it will take 40 or fifty years for them to get there, and 4 or 5 years for their signals to come back and report what they find

but I honestly believe the day is not far off when we stop thinking of Mars and jupiter, and really reach for the stars.

FIRST is not a destination, its not the reward, its the slingshot that will launch you from where you are, to where you can be.

[Ellery]

You da man Ken! I will have to forward this out to my whole team to read.

Thanks for being there for us all!

Ellery

[Ken Leung]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I want to respond to all your points, and I will, but I've been busy very busy lately trying to finish part II. Just a few more days of polishing and it will be done, so stayed tune!

P.S. This is perhaps the most difficult writing experience I've ever done, but it's tons of fun as well ;-).