Prepping for 2008: Awards, Bandsaws, and Perspective

[Stephi Rae]

Originally Posted by Sunshine

WOW,

As a mentor for a team that had success their first season, I really appreciate your message.

I have been struggling, trying to put into words what you have so eloquently said. Thank You!

I, along with most of our students, walked away from last season with a permanent buzz. It had nothing to do with winning an All-Star Rookie Award. It had nothing to with making it to Atlanta. It was all about the growth we saw in each other. It was about the relationships. It was about finding a place, a mission, a goal that satisfied a thirst that none of us knew we had.

Now we start our second season trying to explain to new members what we learned and what we discovered along the way. We want to explain what this feeling is that we have each and every time we see and work with each other.

You started this important journey for us by sharing your feelings. Thank You!!

Team 1983 had a VERY similar experience. Our team has more than doubled in size for our upcoming second year. It is difficult to explain to them that while it was exciting that we won, it is not what this is all about. When recruiting, or simply talking about FIRST it is hard to find the words to explain how FIRST changes you. I'm sure the freshmen are getting extremely tired of my answering their questions, or trying to explain and simply having to end with: "You don't know yet. But you will. But you won't know while it's happening, you just look back one day and say, WOAH! I used to be like that?!" You're a winner when your life has been touched by FIRST and you turn around to help FIRST touch someone else's life and when you work together and grow to know and appreciate those around you.

Our coach is a very soft-spoken guy. It was hard to understand him as a teacher before spending a season with him, and with FIRST. Now it is so clear that all he wants is for us to reach that eureka, where we understand what it is we are doing, and where we are proud of ourselves for figuring it out on your own with simply the guidance from an experienced individual. This is what FIRST is about. Learning about yourself, and your surroundings, and the engineering, and when you are yourself one of the experienced individuals, you turn around and guide someone else.

I very much agree with you Rich Kressly in saying that there needs to be a little bit more awareness and control of the crappy mainstream behaviors. I will admit it was difficult at first for our coach to get our team to leave those behaviors behind. Now that they are, however, the value is very well understood and will be passed to new members with pride. I thank you for your challenge, and encouragement in your list of things to do this season. I will be sharing this with our team very soon. Maybe it will give some of those newbies a little bit more perspective on what I've been trying to explain. Or at least the answer will be different than "you'll see young one."

-Stephi Rae