AAAAAARRRRRRGGGG!

[Hieb]

Originally Posted by KathieK

I talk a lot about mentor burnout in the presentation I gave at kickoff - http://first.wpi.edu/Workshops/index.html - Mentor Recruitment and Retention. Sounds like you could use some help - at least try and get some mentors on board who can help with the non-engineering logistics side of the team to offload that responsibility from your shoulders.

I'll definitely check out the presentation, but burnout isn't likely for several reasons:

1. I love to learn and figure out how things work, and I think I get as much (if not more) out of the challenges each year as the kids do.

2. I have an obsessive personality, and I've been totally obsessed with FIRST since my own rookie season.

3. Finally, most teachers have a moment (or hopefully several moments) in their career where they can look back to and say "This is why I teach" and when burnout appears possible it's those moments that pull us through. One of those moments for me came after my rookie season: we had competed in the St. Louis regional and placed somewhere around 38 or 39 out 52 teams and were done. As we were unloading the robot back at school, one of the freshman was just standing there with a look of total awe and pride on his face and said "I can't believe that WE built this." It was a school that a lot of people have written off, and he was a student that a lot of people had written off, but we were able to give him an experience I know he will never forget. Any time I think about throwing in the towel I can think back to that moment and know that the long hours, the sleepless nights, and even the frustrations are worth it. To touch the lives of students is why we teach, and FIRST provides an opportunity like no other to do just that--touch lives.

So, no burnout here. Just a need to take a breath before we get back to building.