You Know You're Proud To Be A FIRSTer When...

[HashemReza]

When you've played baseball for 11 years, including all your years of high school, and as a senior...

...you quit the baseball team to focus on expanding your role on the robotics team.

[kgzak]

... You know one day you will make a difference.

[Church]

When you can be an asset a new team, and feel like you're helping them out by being a mentor.

[Ken Patton]

When people who used to wonder what the heck you did every winter now brag to you about how their kids are doing in robotics.

[MishraArtificer]

...you realize that FIRST is one of the few things helping you keep a firm grip on your sanity.

True story.

[NorviewsVeteran]

-A friend is trying to decide whether to start an FTC team or not, and after chatting on FB for a while, he changes his status to
"int Richard = Savior(everything);"

-You explain to someone how do do something, they go off and do it, come back and ask, "is this right?" and you say,

"Yes."

.

[AMB2010]

when your mom asks you why your team shirts are always in the wash...because you wear them as often as you can !!!!

[BrendanB]

When you meet someone and when you get on the discussion of what sports do you play and I say that I do robotics and they reply with, "Oh, are you involved with the FIRST program?" (and they aren't on a team). You can tell that FIRSTawarness has spread as a couple of years ago I would say that and people would be like, "Oh, I have no idea what that is?!"

[,4lex S.]

You walk into University for 1st year engineering and think, "yeah... I wouldn't be here without FIRST..."

*insert warm fuzzy feeling about program working*

[DonRotolo]

When KIDS from other teams go out of their way to find you at competition and THANK you for being a mentor.

[ErikEdhlund]

You know you're proud to be a FIRSTer when you choose to come and mentor for your team the year after you graduate.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I am proud to be a Firster everytime time I see a student succeed, a rookie receive an award, a mentor tells me they will be coming back, or when that "light" in a student's eye blinks on when they have just answered a technical question for another team. I am proud whenever I see someone do their best, work with someone they don't know, discuss strategy like a pro, or congratulate another team on a job well done. I am proud when a non-team person who has been given a team tshirt is approached by hundreds of people and told "hey, I like your team!" or "You guys have a great robot". (This happens when we gave tshirts to visiting relatives at the Champs.) I am proud whenever I turn to a team during inspections and say "OK I just need two signatures here and I will go get your sticker, you passed!"
I am especially proud when someone I know receives the WFFA and I am able to be present to welcome them into the community.

[Dmentor]

… you take vacation time from work to get up way too early and commute through rush hour traffic on a Thursday morning to get covered in grease and metal shavings helping a fellow FIRST rookie team AND when you look around the pit you have trouble picking out the rookie’s team shirts amongst the Kaleidoscope of team shirts all frantically helping side by side to get the robot ready for inspection and competition AND when you happen to glance down rookie row and see the same miracle occurring in every single rookie pit… Yeah, it made me proud to be a part of FIRST.

This was my experience at 2009 DC regional. Memories: Priceless.

[wendymom]

Tonight was a great night to be a FIRSTer. We held our sponsor Thank You Dinner

I got to:

Watch a young lady who didn't speak the first year she was on the team give a presentation at our sponsor dinner in front of 50 something people without batting an eye

Brag on one of my graduated seniors who is now ranked in the top 20 of programmers at UCF and he is a freshman.

Watch my son who started in FIRST 6 years ago mentor the students in the presentation tonight

Listen to every sponsor who came up to me and told me what an inspiration these kids are

See kids who have only been on the team for a month or so jump right in so that only someone who knew....would know that they were new.

Enjoy seeing many of our alumni come back to visit and still want to be a part of the team

Have a BLAST with a great bunch of people who have become my family

[FIRSTgirl675]

-When your school has no sports and your FRC team is the school's Football Team.

-When you hear people, especially little kids, talking about the robot you helped build as if they had just seen it, when they actually saw it 5 months before.

-When you are able to help someone by using a skill you learned because of your involvement in FIRST.

-When you see a rookie student that reminds you of yourself when you were a rookie when you were learning how to use the machinery in the shop.