[Jeff Waegelin]

My "transitional year" was last year. I had been a student on 201 for three years (2001-2003), and then graduated and came here to the University of Michigan. Following the 2003 season, 201's teacher moved to a different school, and most of the student leadership graduated. Seeing a lack of experienced membership on the team, I decided to come back part-time to help ease the transition and bring some much-needed expertise. Unfortunately, somewhere in there, things didn't quite work out as planned. I basically spent most of my time filling more of a student role than a mentor role, which was neither my goal, nor my intentions at the beginning of the 2004 season.

After weeks of feeling unappreciated and underutilized, I realized that I was trying to recreate my high school team, which didn't really exist anymore. I stuck around through the end of the season, to fulfill the committment I made in January, but I knew that is was the end of my time with 201.

Though my experience that year was slightly less than satisfactory, it taught me a great many things about how to and how not to be a mentor. I think it took a year like that for me to fully grasp the difference between being a student and being a mentor, and I'm probably better off for it. Now I'm mentoring a local team here in Ann Arbor, and I feel that my "transition" if not complete, is on the right track.