The Responsibility of Being a Role Model

[Bongle]

There have been times in the past when I overheard conversations between some of these people and had my heart sink when I found out the topic being discussed. One discussion I remember vividly was a mentor talking about a party he had been to which involved drinking.

Was it wrong for this person to be at a party? No. He was 21, he can drink if he wants. This person didn't do anything wrong. But to me, this was like listening to Steve Young and Jerry Rice discuss how awesome heroin is. My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. My celebrity was nothing more than a drunk party boy in my eyes. This person could have won a WFA and went on to cure cancer, but I will still put that memory next to it all.

This is a bit silly. If the person was great when you didn't know they drank in their spare time, they should remain excellent when you do know that information. The opposite lesson to take home from this would be "it is possible to be a helpful, responsible, and inspiring member of the community while drinking every now and then". If you imagine that your mentors (or any human being) are perfect, you are almost certainly going to be let down at some point.

So while the mentors should keep in mind that they are role models, students should keep in mind that mentors and other pillars of the FRC community are just human, and probably do 'bad' things from time to time. They might even make statements or perform actions that could be considered un-GP. Try to take from them the positive, and ignore the negatives.