I’m feeling it, and I’ll bet many of you are feeling it too.
I miss seeing the FIRST community. Well, not so much the FIRST ‘community,’ as in some big group, but the beautiful people that make up that group. And I’m especially feeling it now, around FIRST Championship time.
I miss seeing your faces and sensing your energy. I miss sharing with you the emotional ups and downs of events. And I miss your completely genuine, unrehearsed responses to those ups and downs.
I have known some of you for years, and you are good friends. I love being at an event and unexpectedly seeing you pop around a corner. I instantly smile, and it always brings out a ‘Hey!!!’ and a handshake or a hug, and maybe a brief catching-up.
For many of you, I know your faces but not your names. But it doesn’t matter much. I still enjoy seeing you.
Even if I have never met you before, you lift me from the mundane. There’s something magical about being around the energy of a team working on their robot or getting ready to go into the Chairman’s Award interview room. It’s precious and irreplaceable.
So, I miss, I miss, I miss, and it hurts.
But this I know – we’ll be back together again eventually, and all this missing will make the reunion that much sweeter. Until then, take care and be well! I can’t wait to see all of you again soon!
Frank