The Spirit of FIRST

[Rion Atkinson]

In several conversations with my previous Team Captain this has come up many times. I respect him greatly, he has helped me grow as an engineer and as a leader in ways he will never fully understand. But many a times have we been looking at pictures of previous years robots to see how things have been done just in case we need them.

At some point he would say "I wish we could do that. I really do. It would be so amazing. And it would make us so much better." We would then sit there for a moment and I would respond "But we can't. We don't have the resources, and our mentors are holding us back." that would get us both thinking. He would typically respond "Your right. So how can we fix that?" I would think for a bit and respond "Well, we know what we have, and we know what we can do. Lets start with that."

What I am saying is that, no, it's not unfair. They are simply taking advantage of the hard work they have done. What right do we have to stop them? I personally like seeing the teams that can do this. I look at them and say "I want to be like them. We will strive to be like them. Lets get started! "

Good luck this season!