I took this class at a much more advanced age than its intended student. Because of this, I learned how to deal with younger students as peers. Even though I don't necessarily know more than them, they still looked to me as a mentor figure and this responsibility effected how I communicated with them. When your circumstances put you in a situation like this, you have to learn to capitalize on them. This may just be doing outside research to stay one step ahead, doing what you can to help, and using experience you have working on projects and dealing with people in general to make their life a little easier.

Because I have only a few years of experience, I know myself a little better. I learned to accept what I know I have to do on a project and to let others make mistakes. This is such a cliche, but letting people make controlled mistakes is the best thing for them to learn. I was excited to make plenty of my own in this class, and I was excited to watch others make preventable mistakes that wouldn't jeopardize anything major. I learned to agree with group ideas and go with the flow, even if I had doubts about their success or feasibility. If I was right to doubt, no problem; if I was wrong, surprise victory. This is a useful mentality going forward, I think.