I’ve been having an internal debate the past few weeks about when it is and isn’t “my place” to intervene.

It began about a month ago when I knew one of the high school age girls on the swim team was having friend problems. I sat around for hours thinking about whether or not I should tell her the truth: that I had been in a similar situation and I came out of it ok. Was it ok for me to intervene in her personal life or should I just stick to teaching her how to swim? In the end, I talked to her. And she was grateful for it. So I think I did the right thing.

This year, I’m serving as a junior RA of sorts. My job is to help the freshmen acclimate to life at college, help them deal with homesickness, etc. And that too, is a balancing act.

I don’t know when I’m supposed to be their friend and when I’m supposed to be the role model. I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I did. I don’t want them to take classes with professors I know are bad. But at the same time my mistakes served as valuable learning opportunities. I know it sounds cheesy but its true.

I’m trying to let them come to me. I’m leaving my door open, literally and figuratively, all the time. If they want me to intervene, I’m more than happy to.

In other news, one of my freshmen recommended the ABC family show Greek to me. The first two seasons are posted in their entirety on hulu.com. It’s an hour long “dramedy” about a brother and sister in rival Greek houses on the same college campus. The acting is far from superb, but the characters are interesting. They all exist in that metaphorical “grey area.” None of them are all good or all bad. They all have good qualities, but do unethical things. In fact some of them do some pretty horrific things, yet I can’t bring myself to dislike any of them. If you’re looking for some mindless television before the fall shows start, you might want to check it out.