Guiding Values and Hard Topics

I thought the way Cody and Lauren did the class discussion was great. Typically we do TTYP, which I still think is pretty effective, but it's good to avoid getting into too much of a pattern and mixing things up a bit. All of the guiding values we talked about are important, and I liked how we were all given the opportunity to elaborate on one of them. The one I had was Positive Thinking, something I believe I try to embody to it's fullest extent. Like I said in class, I try to live in the moment and not let other things that are going on effect my interactions with others or the task at hand. I currently do have a couple of things going on. I'm waiting to hear back about some interviews and applications, I recently was told by a friend of mine whose had emotional problems for a while that she's liked me as more than just a friend the past couple of years and whenever she's been with other guys she's thinking of me, and I recently found out a friend of mine is dropping out this Monday, in addition to having some slight financial problems currently. Nobody really knows about these things going on with me because I choose to ignore it whenever there is stuff to be done and focus on it only when I can do it on my own time and not ruin somebody else's experience.
We also talked about some difficult situations that might come up as Peer Mentors. Although we laughed quite a bit at some of them, they are all serious situations that we may potentially deal with. Personally, I don't see myself being at an underage drinking party next year (I will be of age at the time though.), but if I were and saw one of my mentees there, I would probably leave. I think we also did a good job of trying to set boundaries for the Mentor/Mentee relationship. We don't want to exclude others and we also want to avoid awkward situations. Without getting into details, stuff has happened between others and I in situations where we had to keep things professional, and when that fell through it did make things very awkward. We will have to think more about these situations as we get closer to the fall and as they come up. Luckily we will have a class together where we can discuss them.