[Nate Laverdure]

Like Akash, I'm probably in the minority in that I'm one of those alumni whose FIRST experience had no impact on their career choice-- I've always known I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. (Actually that's not quite true; at six I wanted to be a bus driver and at seven I wanted to be a great white shark.) I didn't fully realize until college, however, that mechanical engineering is a huge field. It's been called the "liberal arts of engineering" because of the variety of subjects it contains beneath its umbrella. I'll admit to a little bit of panic when my university asked me to pick between a couple different specialties.

I was able to look back on my my experience working alongside my FRC mentors to figure out what kind of mechanical engineer I want to be. It was easy to figure out: I want to be a mechanical engineer that does the kinds of things that my mentors could do. I want to be a mechanical engineer that:
-- does work that makes a positive impact on the world
-- can communicate technical and nontechnical ideas to a diverse team of people who all think in a different way than I do
-- can have working relationships with people outside my peer group
-- can also lead a team of my peers

This is how FIRST's inspiration mechanism worked in my life. It was a process that moved so slowly, I couldn't see it happening until I reached a point where I could look retrospectively back at it. Maybe it's happening in the background of your life, too-- but it requires you to make decisions that allow it to happen.

Using choice-of-major as a success metric for inspiration is short-sighted. Real life is much more nuanced and interesting than that.