Bag Day – The End of An Era

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

– Ernest Hemingway

This post comes to you a little later than usual, after a good day’s rest following three intense days of building. Between snow days (shoutout to WCPSS), sleepovers, and tensions running high, I can easily say that this year’s build season was our most challenging.

In terms of the robot – this was the most complex to date. With numerous subsystems, updated electronics, and serious machining, there was a giant leap in the engineering and design principles we learned from our mentors this season. Additionally, the strategy employed in this year’s game, Recycle Rush, forced us to innovate.

The big picture aside, let’s get to the real challenge.

This is the aftermath of an emergency meeting at 7:30 PM Monday night.

We went from having an almost fully functional robot to the kit of parts. Needless to say, no one had much an appetite for dinner that night.

Fortunately, this was not the biggest challenge our team has faced, and we managed to pull things together. As Wiz Khalifa sang over and over (and over) again on the shop radio, “I never fear death or dying, I only fear never trying”.

I guess we did “own the moment”. Introducing our latest robot…

As my last FIRST season, at least as a student, draws to a close I am proud to say that I could not be any happier with our team. We have made it through some tough times, and it’s been a great journey. See you at competition.