This is a real issue... I've only been around
FIRSTa couple of years and have already seen young people with too much pressure on them.
Either from taking on too many task on the team, their parents, or them self cause they try to keep up with imagined expectations they think people have of them. Theres one young man I know who really stressed himself over getting better than a 3.8 GPA, be the do everything man for his team, plus hold down a part time job. To the point of having chest pains and breaking down.
Thats crazy...
FIRST put too much emphasis on going to a top college and getting a degree in engineering. There seems to be a culture of looking down at young people that don't want to get an engineering degree or even go to college. Sorry to tell you but there are some that get into
FIRST not as a stepping stone to RPI but just cause they like tinkering with things.
From what I've seen... too many mentors and parents... treat the kids as adults and not as the kids they are.
Theres another young man I'm working with now that keeps getting told to forget his dreams of ever working for NASA. His mother is happy if he just stays out of trouble and goes to school... he struggles to maintain B's and stresses himself out over getting a B- on a test I've looked at and most likey would have gotten a D on.
I don't have the answers other than learn to relax... and if you think you might be depressed, or know of someone you think is suffering from major depression, speak to someone about it... their parents, someone at the school, but don't just ignore it.
Back in '91 when I was a vol. firefighter I ran a call on a 18 y/o man... he'd been depressed for sometime, a honor student, super smart from what everyone said. At his funeral I heard a couple of his class mates and teachers say they knew there was something bothering him but they thought it was just a faze and he'd snap out of it. He had his heart set on going to Harvard... his suicide note was on the back of the rejection letter from Harvard.
Depression is not something to be taken likey or thought of as only a faze!
-p
