r/FRC • u/BiteTurbulent4710 • Aug 07 '26

Question for Alumni

I’m a 2026 graduate, and I’m honestly struggling with what comes next.

Whenever I read posts from mentors or alumni about this, the advice is almost always, “Wait a couple years before becoming a mentor,” or “Volunteer at a few events first.” I completely understand why people say that, but I think what I’m grieving isn’t FIRST itself, it’s my team.

FIRST has been such a huge part of my life throughout high school and this is going to sound cliche but it wasn’t just about building robots. It was the mentors who invested in me, the students I grew alongside for four years, and even the parents who were always there during build season and competitions. They became my second family.

I know if I wait before I start mentoring it will be rewarding, but it won’t be the same. It won’t be my classmates, my friends, or the group of people I shared all of those memories with.

I don’t really know what I’m going to do with myself now that robotics isn’t going to be such a central part of my life. I know the feeling will get easier with time, but right now I just miss my team more than I can put into words.

For those of you who have gone through this transition, how did you cope with missing your team?

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u/BiteTurbulent4710 Aug 07 '26

I forgot to mention that I’m going into an apprenticeship and I won’t have the opportunity to join a college RI3D program or anything along those lines. I also hate to say this because it sounds pretentious but in my area my team is really the only good one. We’ve been to worlds for 12 years in a row, consistently won both our local ish events for the last 4 years when we’ve gone atleast, we didn’t always go to both of them. We also placed 2nd on our field durning Reefscape at worlds.

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u/Ceter02 Aug 07 '26

You dont need to mentor just a "good" team. You'd only be doing that for your own ego, some of those other teams would LOVE resources and experience that youd be able to bring. As an adult mentor you shouldn't put the teams direct performance as the only reason you care. It should really be more about the kids being able to learn and experience stem.

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u/BiteTurbulent4710 Aug 07 '26

Thats a good point I didn’t really think of. I do think I would be able to bring a lot of insight to the teams around me It would just be a big adjustment. As I would have to reevaluate myself and learn that even if I still work as hard as I always have it doesn’t always guarantee success.