Senior Moments and Last Words

FIRST General Forum
#1

Just thought some seniors would like to share their experience with their teams and get a chance to vent all that they are feeling or if the rest of their team would like to express thanks to the graduating class. Following the permission of a few people, I wanted to share some things…

Mike Nawrot- End Effector Captain- MIT 2012:cool:

We are team mates,
We are coworkers.
We are leaders,
We are creative minds.
We are friends,
We are family.

We are MORT
And we are your future.


Alex Tessmer- Drive Train Captain-Penn State 2012

10 years from now you won't remember who won on Einstein or what division we were in.

But you will remember the hours you spent building a robot.
You will remember your teammates and what they meant to you. 
You will remember learning more about life in 6 weeks than in 18 years of schooling.
Keep tradition alive! It links us to our past and keeps us going toward our future. On 3...

**GO MORT**

MORT '08
*We did what we do, and moved forward...*

Derrek Ridings-Design team and Inventor- Rochester Institute of Technology 2012

Wow. Its been an amazing ride. MORT has really made something incredible out of life. I’ve met some of the most wonderful people I will probably ever have the chance to know through it, and I really don’t know what to do with myself now that its gone. Even with college right around the corner, I just don’t know what I’m going to feel like now that I know I no longer have MORT to return to year after year. I do know that I will never forget this team, and I will never forget the people on it. You are all what made high school worth it. Thank you.


And a little something from me: Akash Rastogi-Sophomore Mt. Olive High School

**MORT 08**

To all the seniors:

      Thank you all so much for being there when I needed help, when I
had a question, when I was bored as hell and you found the most
unbelievable ways of having fun throughout the two years that I have
been able to work alongside you all. But most of all, thank you for
showing me what FIRST can truly do for someone: how many opportunities
it can create, the friends you can make, and the level of pride,
confidence, and leadership a young student can have for their team,
their school, for FIRST, and for themselves. I will love and remember
you all forever, and please, never stop what you are and have been
doing in these past years. Its because of friends like you that I
understand Dean's, Woodie's, and Mr. McGowan's concept that students
in FIRST will change the world.

I will work my hardest to put MORT on the map; as will the rest of the
team that you are leaving behind.

We will take Einstein one day...

may it take 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years...whatever. We'll do it.
Because as they say, "when there's a will, there's a way."

Next season is for you guys.

Sincerely,
Akash
#2

mort 08. It was a brief and intense two years of my life, and right from the beginning i gave it my all and this is where its brought me. Just goes to show how far a fighting spirit will take you. i owe so much to my mentor and everyone who gave me the opportunity to learn. My silver medal is dedicated to MORT, and my gold to Mr Marvin and Mr Mckowski. To my family and friends in MORT, farewell, take Einstein next year for me. Accept nothing less than perfect.

Electrical Captain.
Mike Medeiros

#3

Akash, thanks for posting this.

and i think i’d like to make a call to ALL of FIRST’s seniors to post their own Senior Goodbye, and Senior advice here.

During our impromptu goodbyes Alex said that MORT is about tradition, and this is one tradition i think every team should adopt if they don’t have it already.

After the last night of competition the seniors say whatever is on their mind about the team, advice, etc at our last real “team meeting” for the year. Is it a really sad night? yes. But it brings our team that much closer together, and lets the younger kids know how much the word “team” truly means.

I’ll post a well written goodbye up shortly. But i’d like to open this thread up (sorry akash, i’ll hijack it) to seniors from ALL teams to say their goodbyes.

Also, our mentors say a little bit after we’re done about this years team, and the people on it. so mentors, feel free to jump in and say what you want.

I don’t think anyone should be able to leave this thread with a dry eye. But it’s okay, we won’t tell anyone :wink:

-Chris “chrisms” Smolko

#4

come on guys. does nobody else want to say anything? This thread is open to everyone who wants to pour out their thoughts…and I know for a fact that there are many of you out there.

#5

The best senior moments?

Yeah, there was that one time, no wait, let me think… Oh darn, I just forgot.

#6

Danielle Hurley --Outreach Chair/Woodie Flowers Author-- Tri-State University 2013 (yay five years!)… or, maybe… Clemson University 2012

Oh my gosh… how I sum up my FIRST experience into words… is that even possible? I don’t know if strong enough words in the English language exist to describe just exactly how I feel at the culmination of the three years I’ve spent with my team. There have been a lot of ups, a lot of downs, and a lot of lessons learned, whether it be the easy way or the hard way… but most of the lessons on 393 are learned the hard way. From coming on the team in an unconventional way (“If you’re a friend of Andrienna, then I trust you.”) to losing the support of an entire school system and having to be ‘unofficially’ involved in the team until the time of travelling, which we could do with A LOT of liability paperwork, to losing our head programming engineer three or four days before kick-off, 393 has certainly given me some experiences that are unlike any other.

Granted, don’t get me wrong, even with all the drama on our team, that’s normal, right? There’s drama on EVERY team! Heck… even in theatre, there’s drama, and I’m not just talking acting and teching. But I’ll take the drama any day if it still gives me the friendships, life lessons, and everything else that I’ve learned through the team. You have to take the good with the bad, and, once the four seniors sat down and actually talked it out, the drama wasn’t even that bad. So, it wasn’t much of a sacrifice for a great team.

To my FMJ 393: You guys rock. Greenfield kids that are there now, STAY THERE. No matter where Greenfield wants to go as a school, you have the right to choose that particular team, or FMJ 393. Choose 393. The experiences that you had this year, as good as they were, will only get better as you find yourself more involved in the program. Trust me. My first year definitely wasn’t the best year, and look at how I ended up. I love you all dearly and want you to stick with the Morristown program. It’s a lot closer and family-like than some of the other programs I’ve seen, and I want to be able to come back occassionally and see how much you’ve grown as an individual, as well as a team member. THAT will be the most satisfying part of my FIRST career.

I love you all, 393 members and all the rest of you FIRSTers. You guys are responsible for making me who I am… after all, how many other programs can convert a writer into an engineer?
xD
Not many that I’ve seen.

–Danni
–393

#7