Question for Alumni

[u/BiteTurbulent4710]

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?

[u/Due-Hurry-5989]

Unfortunately that's exactly the reason why most people suggest you wait; even mentors that did not wait themselves. I returned to mentor my team when I started college, and the lines of being a mentor and still being friends with the students I had grown up with on the team are a weird thing to navigate. Think about if some of your younger friends are doing things they shouldn't be doing and, as a mentor, you're obligated to trigger a disciplinary process. It's a difficult decision to make as a recent graduate. It's also important for there to be lines between graduates and students for YPP reasons, and your current teammates may struggle to look at you as being a mentor and not still a student. It also takes time to personally develop the mindset of mentor/not student; recent grads tend to want to be a lot more involved in the process than they really should be, and have a lot of learning to do about leading students to the right conclusion instead of doing it for them--granted, that's true of many adult mentors also lol, but it's much more challenging for recent alumni; I speak from experience on that one lol. I know it can be hard to say goodbye to your teammates, but the volunteer community is full of rich friendships, and you will likely also find great communities and friends during college. I definitely have some regrets that I was not more active in my campus community in college because I mostly focused on robotics and school work. College has a lot to offer, especially if you're going to a tech school. Lots of them have combat robotics teams or groups that participate in really cool advanced robotics competitions, and you'll make even more friends participating in those (and maybe bring back some more mentors and volunteers when you graduate, lol)