The attitude is gratitude

It is easy to get discouraged when things don't go as you think they should. If any of  you watched the streamed matches, you would have seen evidence that robots don't always do what you want. We saw our robots get stuck on sacks, spontaneously lose power to the arm in the middle of a match, and even spin in circles without any input from the controllers. Thankfully there is more to this experience than winning. You win some, you lose some. The important thing is how you play the game, right?  Try telling that to a very competitive middle schooler. Sure, it is a heck of a lot more fun to win. Our challenge is to teach them how to lose graciously. Do you get stuck in the blame game or do you focus on identifying and solving the problems you can fix? Do you give up trying to fix what you think is wrong or do you bounce back and do your best in each moment? Obviously, we want our kids to learn resilience and perseverance, so we give them opportunities like the World Championships to practice these qualities.

And what a world event this is! This is truly the Olympics of robotics. We witnessed more than 700 teams from 24 countries parade across the stage of the Super Dome yesterday morning and not one American team won either middle school division. We have quite a lot of work to do to play a role on this large of a world stage. So top of the agenda at last night's team meeting was to check the team members' attitudes and make sure they considered all the had to be grateful for. Are they grateful for this opportunity to see the best VEX robots in the world? Are they grateful that they have beds, food, and a hotel pool? Are they grateful for each others' camaraderie and for our supervision? All of that was expressed. An attitude of gratitude? You bet! 

Second on the agenda was safety. After two days of allowing a freedom of movement within the confines of the convention center, we are back in buddy system mode where we move and make decisions as a pack. And Doug and I are alpha wolves, without question. Tomorrow the team will travel to Newport Beach, taking public transit, so that we can all dip our toes in the Pacific Ocean.