Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug G
I think some are also misinterpreting what is meant by Mentor burn-out... It is not that we are unhappy or not having fun, it is just they we have responsibilities outside of FIRST and often make sacrifices that either hurt the team or our families. Making that choice is not always fun.
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Amen. Burnout doesn't mean it isn't fun. I freaking love--LOVE--FIRST. But it is exhausting--and moreso the older I get; and it forces me to choose between FIRST and lots of other things that I love.
The obligations of adulthood means that "time off" usually means "time to do other types of work", and FIRST already gets in the way of other types of work. If you want to stay competitive, you meet like crazy, you push yourself, you do everything you can -- because you know everybody else is, too.
Oh, and some of us have spouses, children, pets we have an obligation to keep happy (because we own them, and that's what good pet owners do)...
I love FIRST, but I don't love only FIRST, and I don't want to do only FIRST. I also don't want to look at a group of students who say, "Mr. Freivald, we want to do whatever we can to be as good as the best teams" and say, "no, we're not going to do as much as those other teams do, because Mr. Freivald doesn't want to become suddenly single and give away half his stuff again".
Why do mentors get burned out? Because mentors have more than one passion, more than one obligation, and finite amounts of time and energy.