Why did you join FIRST?

[MishraArtificer]

I shall tell you a tale, a tale of good and evil, of light and darkness...or not...

Saw a few people working on a robot towards the end of the '03-'04 school year, while waiting for my chance to audition for Symphonic Band at Jefferson High School. Didn't get in, and completely forgot about my first encounter with FIRST.

One of my friends the following school year told me about The Team Formerly Known As Mach Vee, and invited me along to their first meeting of the year. We became TEMPEST Robotics that year, and Triple Play still has a place in my heart, sharing it with a lot of good memories. We all signed the robot that year, putting our names on the parts we worked on.

I still remember my first trip to the Great Lakes Regional. The second-to-last match of the event, Team HOT finally became the first team at the Regional to score a vision tetra on the center goal during autonomous mode, and the whole crowd in the Convocation Center went absolutely NUTS.

I've never looked back.

All these years later, I still try to go to events. I went to the GLR (cough, cough) Michigan State Championships, to show the flag even though my old team didn't qualify. My only regret in the whole of my first career is that I never got to drive the robot at a competition, not even an offseason one. Such is my fortune.

They took apart my robot this year, raiding it for parts. They let me take the piece with my name on it. I thank them for that, and I hope to see them all at MARC, if they're going. If not, I'll be there, in my Team 240 shirt. Or my button mail armor shirt. Maybe I'll finally fill up the ****ed thing.

Good Luck, All!