Today was definitely a long day. Putting it in a sentence seems like an understatement, but now I feel like I'm being dramatic. Actually, not really. Today was really a long day and those six words can really describe it. Our team went through a lot today. Before today started, we knew that we would had plenty of work to do. There were big things, like re-mounting the wheels to get back to a decent center of gravity, and there were little things, like filing down all sharp corners. In the same extent, we ran into road blocks. Similar to our to do list, these challenges came in varying sizes. Some were small, like having some wires jostled loose during the transportation process and some... yeah.
Unfortunately, we were not able to get through all of inspection and our first time of seeing the robot in action will be our first match tomorrow. Compared to other build days of prior FRC competitions, I felt like I was much more hands-on this year when it came to things like working alongside the students to mount 80/20 brackets and create makeshift guard panels for wheel mechanisms. On the other hand, I feel like I've dropped the ball as a mentor this year. My first year with Robotics, we didn't get through inspection on the build day, so it's not extremely different from the situation right now, but I feel like I've personally learned so much since then that I should have done things throughout the year to prevent it. As I told the students, being the mentor for Robotics basically requires a more hands-on approach than other clubs, but like I said, I feel like I could have done more.
On the other hand, it's the students' team. I tell other people that I'm proud of my students because they design, build, operate, and maintain the robot completely on their own. They really get a chance to get their hands dirty and it's really amazing to see what they can accomplish in the two years that they are here (or even if a student is only on the team for the senior year). A challenge of working with high school students is dealing with procrastination/time management and that definitely came into play with our team this year. My student president is one of the few students that has been in this type of competition before this year, so she knew what all could happen at a competition. As such, she was pushing herself to get so much done beforehand as well as at the competition, since she knows the robot inside and out. That's why I couldn't bear to look at her when we only 10 minutes left to work out of a 12-hour day when the safety inspector tells us that the bumpers need to be redone because they don't fit in the purview of the rules. Of course, that should be a lesson to everyone involved about planning ahead and not jumping into decisions without fully informed, but I knew how she poured her heart into that robot - I knew her agony.
After that moment sunk in, we had to keep moving forward. We couldn't just be a team with a robot that couldn't compete. We still have to go through the final stages of inspection, but it's moments like that that add fire to my belly. Some of the fire will be directed at next year's executive board, but some of it is here for the next couple of days.
It's blog posts like this that make me apprehensive about making my blog more public. I think I'm generally shy when it comes to disclosing my insecurities/faults/shortcomings, but since it's also work-related, I don't want anything funky to happen. Even though we left the pits over four hours ago, I still feel the emotion of the day over the methodical list of what we accomplished.
The qualification matches last all day tomorrow and half of Saturday. If you're interested in seeing us compete, go to the link I posted yesterday and you can see the competition streamed live. In terms of what matches we will be in, here you go (our team number is 2167):
Friday morning - Rds 8, 16, and 22
Friday afternoon - Rds 32, 37, 48, and 58
Saturday morning - Rds 74, 81, and 89
I'll probably be posting to Twitter as well, as long as I can get away to find okay cell reception. (Poor reception in the loading bay of a giant arena that's filled with dozens of robots? Who knew? :-P) Hopefully we can attack tomorrow morning and be a participant in our first match of the day.
Since tomorrow will also be a long day, I really need sleep. Have a nice night and hopefully you can see us compete!
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