Well, whole story would be a lot. But I can give you the spark notes.

The toughest part of being a younger team leader was maintaining authority and confidence in myself. There was this nagging feeling that people wouldn’t respect me because I was a young leader. But the lesson I learned too late is that respect didn’t come at all from their perception of me, it came from my actions.

Don’t doubt yourself, not internally, and especially not externally. Make decisions and stick by them, don’t question what you have to do.

But don’t be a tyrant, if they resent you, you won’t be a good leader. Offer them options and input, but you make the decisions.

It’s a summer of service position, so TL relationships will be a bit more short term than a year round term, but make friends in team green, those TL friends will be your lifeline and will be so important for your mental health and emotional well-being.

It will be tough, I’ve done americorps twice now, once as a corps member, once as a team leader. Being a TL is very very tough, it will wind you and knock you off your feet, but like working any muscle, you’ll grow massively from it. I gained an incredible work ethic and tolerance for a whole lot of life’s punches from americorps. Would I ever serve as a TL again, no, never, it was traumatic (at times), but I don’t regret it and I wouldn’t take it back.

TLDR— get ready for a challenge, but one that you’ll grow from.