CAD and Cookies

Today (yesterday?) was one of the best days I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing in my life. It wasn’t our robot, or even all the excellent people that made it so– to recap, we not only made it into eliminations, but managed to win our second Imagery Award of the season, and the Regional Chairman’s Award. 

I don’t think many people on here will be familiar with our team’s story when it comes to competitions, so I’ll tell you our story after the break.

Our team has submitted for Chairman’s since our second year. This is not something that is unique in many places, but it is incredibly so in Minnesota. At the North Star Regional, there were only ten teams submitting, and many of them were second year teams submitting to keep their NASA grant. This being said, we’ve only had a really competitive submission for the last few years. One of our captains last year had made it a huge commitment, pouring everything he had into our submission and presentation. This wasn’t just an awkward kid either– we was a full on speech and debate kid (our school, EHS, has one of the most competitive programs in the country in the National Forensic League). He was also one of those kids who just “got it." 

But his first year presenting, we were steamrolled by two of the most excellent programs in our state– Team 2169, KING TeC, and Team 1816, The Green Machine. They had truly excellent submissions, and I’m proud to be able to call members of both teams friends. It’s hard to not be incredibly proud of them, but it was still a tough pill for our team to swallow– after all, like so many teams, we had put our hearts and our souls into this, and come up empty handed. That combined with a dismal robot performance was a huge damper on our team’s spirits.

But we came back swinging the next year, both with our robot and our submission, and we came back far more successful– Finalists and Semifinalists in addition to winning the Engineering Inspiration Award. We were incredibly euphoric, and, attending Championships, learned so much, taking it back to improve our program. Unfortunately, by this time, the aforementioned captain had graduated– disappointed and, unfortunately, a bit bitter. We love 1816, but our team takes coopertition to its fullest value– we cooperate and work with them a ton during the offseason, but we had a burning desire to surpass their incredible program.

This year, the submission was left to one of our new captains and me. We were left with incredibly huge shoes to fill– neither of us was a speech kid, so we didn’t feel particularly confident. That being said, both of us had a burning desire to win this award– our team has never taken home a blue banner in our history, something that, despite protests from some of us, rubbed many of our members the wrong way. Luckily, we were able to isolate ourselves from that bitterness– we’ve said the whole way, it isn’t actually about winning the award. Maybe it comes from my background in FLL, but we took "What we discover is more important than what we win” to heart, and I think it paid off. 

Despite countless setbacks, we made it. We ran two wholly unique outreach events– our STEM Career Fair and the Blue Devil Press, in addition to our beautiful new pit, which I think really put us over the edge. We pulled in safetygogglesatnight for the presentation. I know she sometimes has difficulty talking to people, but her enthusiasm shone through. Marshall brought a cool, analytical air, and I rounded it off. Veni, vidi, vici.

I’m still a bit shocked that we won. Almost the whole way, we thought it would be Green Machine, until Engineering Inspiration. Then the words came out of Yoji’s mount– over 20 FLL teams, 3 FTC teams, basketball in a sponsor’s office, newspaper articles, STEM Career Fair. It was us. Me and safetygoggles hugged almost the entire time. Renee showed us a video afterwards. I had tears in my eyes when we went through through the judges line. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my life when I’ve been quite that happy.

The presenters had a group hug– I’ll try to find a video of it, but I think we spun around so many times. After that, it was a bit of a blur, pictures, music, cheering. So much joy. When I looked back up at the stands finally, they were empty except for 1816. They shouted at us– “22!”

And we finished “20!”

Then we gave them an “18!”

“16!”

I love them so much, for everything they’ve done not only for us, but for FIRST in Minnesota.

I talked with one that captain I mentioned earlier– he was happy we had finally won, though he wished he was still on the team.

When we were packing up the pit, I broke down a little bit leaning against one of our cabinets– I think I cried for a solid five minutes– another picture I need to find.

Somehow it came out that I had written safetygoggles’ winning submission (I already mentioned this, so I won’t go into that). I later found out she had written mine.

It was incredibly emotionally draining, but was also overall one of the most incredible experiences. I think we were hugging the whole time. There are no other people I would have rather worked with than my fellow presenters, and there’s no one I would have rather lost– it feels weird to think of it that way, because I honestly feel that safetygoggles’ nomination was a win for both of us, than her.

It’s been a wild ride, and a hell of a pleasure.