FIRST Alumni

[Andrew Schreiber]

As an alumni I went to a different team. Once there I and another alumni (from that team) both mentored in very similar portions. The problem became that one of us was a mentor the other was still an older student. With me things were much more a mentor-student role, with my colleague it was a more student to student role.

By no means is this unique to our situation, however. In fact I have found it in a few other places. My personal advice would be to either wait a couple years to return (3 - 4 years) OR mentor another team. Personally I feel mentoring another team benefited me more than returning to RUSH in a couple years ever could have. I have to admit, I lived a very sheltered life in a nice suburb, having a team there where parents were supportive and everyone had a phone number that worked was what I expected. Coming to Knightriders, in downtown Flint, was quite a shocker to me, one I never quite got over. I would expect to be able to reach a student via phone and sometimes the phones would be disconnected.

I guess my point, before I get rambling, is that working with another team forces you to see things in another light. It forces you to see yourself in a different light too, I know I learned things about myself by being put into new situations that I probably never would have learned otherwise.

My final advice, never do something because it is comfortable, do something because you WANT to do it. If you want to return to your old team because you think you can add to it and it can add to you, DO IT. If you want to do it because you are comfortable chances are you shouldnt do it.