If You Could Start Over With Your FIRST Experience...

[JaneYoung]

What would you do differently, the same, modify, or - change?

I've been thinking about this question for a little while and, as I do, the layers peel back a little at a time. One answer that I've come up with for my personal experience is that I wouldn't have waited so long to find people who are storehouses of knowledge, experience, and an understanding/empathy that has practical applications.

What would you do if you could start over?

Jane

[ProgramLuke]

I would have started earlier. Not joining as a freshman was the worst mistake I have ever made.

[Chris is me]

This is a tough question because it's hard to figure out a situation in robotics that both had an important outcome later in my experience, and didn't end up having a net positive effect on me when all was said and done. For example, when I competed in FTC my junior year, I could have built a better robot or spent more time in the design phase, gotten mentors, etc., but then I likely wouldn't have been picked by the alliance I did. I wouldn't have won the event, wouldn't have been offered help by 1714, and wouldn't have jumped into FRC.

So really, I can think of a lot of things I wish I did differently, but I wouldn't change any of them if I could.

[ttldomination]

This year I learned to CAD...in April...of my senior year...so you can say that it was a bit late. I wish I would've learned it in my first or second year.

- Sunny

[BrendanB]

I would have started a year or two before I did. I would have loved to learn CAD sooner rather than later. I wished I had spent less time in FRC during my junior and sophmore years. My grades dropped a little, I didn't get as much out of my studies as possible, senior year was the only year that I stayed on top of my school 100%.

Other than that, it was great!

[delsaner]

The only thing I could think of is that I should have been more involved as a freshman. All else was satisfactory in my view.

[kgzak]

Be more involved in my freshman year and maybe started programing my freshman year. Not really that much.

[Aren Siekmeier]

I would have made much more of an effort to join the team in its rookie year when I was in 8th grade (2007). I had heard about the team from my FLL mentor (the founder, actually) and knew I wanted to be involved, however, the faculty member coordinating the program at the time was (and still is, although he no longer coordinate FRC at our school) pretty stringent on the 9th grade lower limit. Now our team has several 8th grade members, and I have encountered many other teams with younger members.

I think another thing is that I maybe would have tried to pulled some more of my peers into the program with me when I started, because now approaching senior year they have become more involved in other things or missed the opportunity entirely. Get 'em young, I guess...

[Brandon Holley]

I would say almost all of the things I would change are related to strategy or design decisions of various years and robots.

As others here have said, I don't think I would change much in terms of the mistakes and learning experiences because they have produced positive results thus far.

As a mentor, there are certainly some things I would have done differently over the past 5+ years or so, but for the most part, I believe they have produced positive results as well, so its tough to pinpoint exactly what to change.

-Brando

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Sorry Jane, I can't remember that far back.

[Jared Russell]

I would have chosen a different haircut, because I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking in 2001.

[JesseK]

Generally I have no regrets, but perhaps I would assist in running the team more rather than focusing solely on the technical aspects.

[blayde5]

Originally Posted by ProgramLuke

I would have started earlier. Not joining as a freshman was the worst mistake I have ever made.

This is a big one for me too. I joined in 10th grade and joined the team's management the next year.

The extra year of experience would have definitely helped me while I was on management (in charge of the mechanical team) as I was still learning about mechanics this year while trying to lead the group.

Another one is not keeping up with my CAD modeling More practice is better!

[Cheerleader1073]

Absolutely nothing, seriously though. I'll keep this one short and sweet compared to my normal contributions to posts like these - I've simply learned so much about everything from relationships to building a robot to finalizing what I want to pursue for my career to finding out what REALLY allows me to have complete fun from my first few years of FIRST since my freshman year. I would never trade the mistakes I've made with the physical robot or with people for anything else because those are the times where I've learned the most! I can't wait for my senior year this year to sort of be able to share those same experiences 'one last time' with the little freshmen . So, to answer your question truthfully, I wouldn't change a thing!

[CENTURION]

I would have started my freshman year. As it is, I joined my senior year, so I only got to spend one awesome year with FIRST as a student.