FIRST after Highschool

[Nica F.]

Being a high school senior, It's beginning to hit me that this will be my last year as a team member (that's not a mentor). I searched the threads and couldn't quite find something I was looking for so I'm here to ask the alumni and post highschool FIRSTers,

In your freshman year of college, should you mentor a FIRST team or take a year break to get settled?

The choices I've figured out are:

-Take a break from robotics by mentoring but continue by volunteering/attending events.

-Mentor a team

-Not mentor at all to settle in first year of college and get involved again the following year

I'm honestly just trying to figure out the pros and cons of a decision to mentor a FIRST team right away.

For those who took a break:

Why did you take the break?
What benefits do you think you gained from it?

and for those who continued with FIRST by mentoring a team right away:

What do you think were problems you encountered?
Do you feel like you had time to adjust and be a mentor at the same time?

Of course, anything additional you'd like to add to your answer is fine.

Thanks all in advance!,
Nica