does anyone, whether you’re a coach,mentor, or student feel like they just joined their team yesterday? I’m a junior currently but I feel like I was just a newbie freshmen then I blinked and it’s almost time to graduate.
where does the time go?
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I joined my current team as a mentor in 2014. I feel like it’s only been maybe 5 seasons total, so it feels odd to have just found out that some of my former students are completing PhDs, married with 2 kids, having 5 year (professional/post-college) job anniversaries…
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I ran into a former student of our team at my wedding. She was working as part of the event staff, but I found out she just finished her masters in chemical engineering and was moving away soon. I feel like I remember her first meeting when her older brother brought her and her last meetings as a CAD captain. It feels like that last meeting was only a couple years ago… In reality it was probably 5-6 years ago now. It seriously flies by
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Just wait until you are turning 50 soon…
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And fruit flies love a banana!
Yes, the time goes by fast. It only seems to go faster too 
. That’s alright, just part of being human.
A perl of wisdom I once received: All blessings are bestowed in the present. The past is fixed, and the future is some combination of unknown, and often uncontrollable. The present is where you have to do all your “being” in. Your focus is best spent there, soaking up each moment to the best of your abilities, and not dwelling on what used to be, or what has not yet come to pass.
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It is still wild to me that I won the WFFA award 10 years ago and have been a mentor since 2010.
I already have students who were born after I started mentoring.
The longer you stay in this program the more time becomes an illusion part of this is because high school students are always roughly the same age so you don’t always realize the passage of time since the “group” stays the same age.
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Some of my current students found out this weekend that I’m at least twice as old as anyone (students at least) currently on the team. One of them said she thought I was 24. That got me a good laugh (and inwardly 
)
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It’s been 8 years since I went to my first FLL provincials, but I can still remember the joy that set in the moment it was announced we had qualified. That was our first year as a team, my first year in FIRST, and now I’m here mentoring kids the same age as when I did it.
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Lunchtime at team meetings doubly so
I sometimes forget my team isn’t new anymore. It doesn’t help that I keep getting new students and graduating all the experience, lol! Also, 2/6 of the years in our history were weird COVID seasons, which was a time-warp unto itself.
But when I saw all the 10000 teams listed at our first event this year, I felt much older.
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Yeah, time did fly for me, it feels like I had just walked into my teams build space as a freshman yesterday, and it occurred to me “hey, you are building your second to last robot as a student with the team” Saturday,
I don’t know where the past three and a half years have gone, but I’m happy I spent a large amount of them spending long nights almost every day working on robots
10 years ago, I remember being there for my high school robotics introduction meeting where lots of people initially joined, until build season came around where the number got reduced by a lot and I knew that this is something I want to be apart from. Now, I mentor a community team. Crazy how time flies when I think about when I first joined FRC.
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What happened during COVID:
How I probably come across to today’s students:
(to make people feel doubly old, this episode of 30 Rock aired when current FRC freshman were 2 years old…)
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Sorry to make you feel extra old – they have no idea what this is – I wore this as my costume last Halloween and ZERO of the students or college mentors knew it.
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Aging Matt Damon from Saving Private Ryan is a pretty deep cut. I don’t blame people for not getting it right away. /s
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Every time they do the mentor walk at regionals, I look at the signs with years on them and then start counting on my fingers. Can’t believe I’m now in the 15+ years section, I’m only 35.
At this point, there are only a handful of kids on the team that are older than the existence of the team itself.
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I started 1923 my freshman year of high school with just my friend and our parents to help guide the way.
Now, as lead mentor, I’m helping the students design our 20th-Season special edition merch for the upcoming year.
Time flies, indeed. It feels like it’s been both a singular second and somehow also multiple lifetimes. Enjoy the journey!
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My first season in FIRST was FTC season 2018-2019 Rover Ruckus. I heard while watching some of the early videos on FUN’s YouTube channel that it was 6 years ago. I felt old then even though I’m just a senior now. It still feels like that was 2 years ago. And while writing this I realized I’ve been in FIRST for over a third of my lifetime which really made me feel old. I still remember my first FTC competition. I had so much fun because it was like nothing I had ever been to before. My first FRC competition took that to the next level and I’ve just absolutely fallen in love with FIRST.
Blows my mind that I am at 11 years this season. I don’t know quite when it happened but I am solidly towards the back of the parade now…
Love a good existentialist outlook. Being miserable in hustle culture is a huge trap and makes me really feel for those who are chosing exhaustion and unhappiness for an uncertain future “leg up”.
I was thinking about what gives me fulfillment over the weekend, how some of my peers have expressed how they have wasted their 20s… FRC is a major component to me feeling the opposite, I’ve helped a few people make connections or get places, I’ve had some wonderful and intense competitive successes and heartbreaks… It is a great program to grow in even well outside of high-school when your role changes.
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Entering my twentieth season, I think I have more questions than I did my first. As it turns out, the answers are the friends I’ve gained along the way.
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