Alumni Stories: Patrick's Tale

Reflecting back on the 8 years since I first stepped foot into the Monta Vista Robotics Team lab, I still am awestruck by the power of a FIRST Robotics experience. I look back into the mind's eye, and looked at myself, back then, a 15-year-old kid, and nothing more. There was nothing interesting about this kid. He went through elementary school, middle school, and basically did what kids do. He went to school, played handball, then moved onto Magic Cards, joined the band, and if anyone were to look at this kid they'd say he'd grow up and do what people do when they grew up.

Then, one January day in the first week of the new millennium, things changed. I didn't realize it then, or even years from then, but by good fortune, this ordinary kid was thrust into a proverbial hero's journey. We've all heard this story before, in old books, in comics, in movies. An unassuming boy is thrust, usually without his knowledge, into an epic adventure that he could not have possibly imagined.

That Kickoff day, on January 8th, 2000, my life changed.

In the first two years as a rookie member, I was put through the steepest learning curve I'd experienced in my life. One could describe the experience through the words, Physics, Prototyping, TIG welding, SAE screws, replacing a dead drive train component on the robot between matches in 15 minutes.

This was Passion.

In the third year, as team President, I was put through the steepest learning curve I'd experienced in my life. Being at the helm of a prestigious organization, I thought that the waters would be smooth sailing. In that moment, the naive 17 year old had no idea of the storm to come. The storm would involve months of bitter infighting among the core officer team. The words, politics, backstabbing, hidden action, subversion, stonewalling, factions, and divided vision come to mind.

We did not end the year without casualties, yet the team weathered the storm. And the rookie captain, vowed to himself to rebuild a great team.

This was Determination.

In my fourth year, as a veteran team President, we faced new challenges. Not the least of which was the renovation of Monta Vista High School that had essentially left the Robotics Team homeless. In that year, I remember talking to my parents and convincing them to open up our home, our garage to host MVRT. It was small, it was humble, it lacked the machine tools that we had grown so accustomed to, but it did have one magical component, A Team. That team surpassed all challenges and became for once the Silicon Valley Regional Champions.

This was Victory.

The boy, once ordinary, became a man with character.

And I return to the team, year after year, inviting the next set of ordinary 14-15 year olds to take the first step of an epic journey.

This is FIRST.

Welcome Aboard, Tomorrow's Heroes

-Patrick Wang