Why did you join FIRST?

[Joe Matt]

A kid down the street that my parents knew joined 384 as it started back in 2000, and upon finding out that my dad is an electrical engineer, he asked him if he could sponsor/mentor. My dad brought me to kick-off and the 2001 VCU competition. I joined my freshman year through senior year.

A significant part of my life just so happened to be based on happenstance, which is somewhat hopefully yet scarry.

[Aureanicole]

My older brother joined the team and had seemed to like it quite a bit. He can be hard to entertain, so I figured it had to be good. This was my 2nd season on the team, I love it, and am now a student leader. Not to mention I can say we held 1st in Galileo division while in Atlanta

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Aureanicole

My older brother joined the team and had seemed to like it quite a bit. He can be hard to entertain, so I figured it had to be good. This was my 2nd season on the team, I love it, and am now a student leader. Not to mention I can say we held 1st in Galileo division while in Atlanta

For about 20 minutes our team was first seed in Newton this year. If I recall correctly, we walked back from a win and the pit crew was applauding, then my mom showed me a picture she took on her camera. It didn't last long and we all knew once 1625, 1918, 2970 came back with wins we'd bump back down, but nonetheless, I can truthfully say I was the coach that got us to first seed in Atlanta

[Phoenix Spud]

I have always wanted to be an engineer, so FIRST was natural for me. Also I used to live in NH where FIRST is a BIG deal. Almost every high school has an FRC team, and every home schooler knows what FLL is! Also most home schoolers who like science/technology do FLL.

[Katie_UPS]

They say "be the change you wish to see". So I'm assuming this can be converted into "bump the thread you'd like to read".

Thus being said, I just justified my thread revival, and am requesting more stories.

[Boron + Z]

The transition summer between 8th grade and freshman year I saw a special on FIRST Robotics on the Science Channel. I remember watching the 2004 game, not understanding much, but thinking that it was so awesome. It's funny that three months later I was hooked on FIRST after a friend dragged me to a VEX robotics meeting. Four years of FIRST later and I'm completely addicted to the program and REALLY excited for IRI.

[Blue_Mist]

In 2005, 766, with 217(!) and 245(!), won Archimedes. A couple of months later, they realized they needed to recruit because much of the team was graduating, and visited my 8th grade science class. Christina, one of the founding members and the only girl there, mentioned needing anyone who was interested, not necessarily experienced. Later on, in fall of my freshman year at Club Rush, Christina invited me and two friends to the 2006 Kickoff. One sign-up sheet, four insane years, hundreds of hours and thousands of emails later, I'm coming back for more...

[jmanela]

heard a cool annoucement over the PA at my school and saw a robot (team 469's) from last the overdrive season and thought it was cool. ended up being the best experience. ever.

[rsisk]

My sister and her husband have been involved with First for many years, both judging and refereeing. They got my wife involved judging in LA for a couple of years, but I never really had a clue what they were doing. I just knew that she would head to LA for a couple of days and I would be at home with the kids on our own for the weekend.

Then she started a team, 2493 Robokong and I was to be the programming mentor for the team.... and then my life changed in strange and mysterious ways :>

Now we compete in San Diego, judge in LA and Phoenix and do field setup/teardown at all three regionals. We also made the trip to New Hampshire for kick off this last year. Next year we plan to go to Championship for the first time.

My only reget.... I didn't start sooner.

[Ken Leung]

My parents made me.

...

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

My parents made me.

Four words? FOUR words?! Ken, is this your shortest post ever?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Richard

Four words? FOUR words?! Ken, is this your shortest post ever?

This is not a good start to the day... I fear the world will tilt. More words are needed to bring it back in balance.

[Pavan Dave]

I never "joined" FIRST, nor do I plan on "joining" FIRST.

Robotics entered my life when some guy in class said I should join and I heard some fellow band kids talking about it. Rest is history. Joined team, got overly involved, grades dropped, banned from CD twice (by request of course), countless phone calls, countless hours of sleep lost, countless competitions ran and participated in, many games designed or impacted design of, soon to be board member of organization, many smiles and happy kids along the way, etc., etc.

I don't do FIRST, I do Robotics. At that I do Robotics Education. That means whatever it takes to get people to realize or acknowledge the effects of technology and stuff in their everyday lives and hope that it sticks.

Robotics = EARLY, BEST, VEX, GEAR, FLL, FRC, Botball, among others which will soon be released!

Pavan Davé

[demosthenes2k8]

I did our team's lego camp...and my classmates were the counselors. It was a bit awkward.....but it was fun, so it was worth it! Then after I finished that year's Shakespeare play, I searched for the FIRST team until I joined.

[kazzykaty]

My father knew the mentor of our school's robotics team and when I became a sophomore, my dad told me I had to join the robotics team. I didn't argue with my dad and just figured I would show up at a meeting here and there and hopefully lose credit & get kicked out. I dragged my best friend, Heather, to the first meeting.
We both slowly got more and more involved. We were good at getting the little things done that most people think are unimportant to the team and the guys wouldn't do. But they HAD to get done so we did them.
Before you knew it, we made the travel team.. maybe just because they needed to bring two more girls to fill a room. But before I knew it, I was project manager and had brought 6 additional girls to the team because of my passion for Team 223.
At first I thought it was just a stupid, geeky club. But now it's my entire life. I can't imagine life without FIRST robotics.