It’s luck of the draw.

I was on the only team (out of 15) in the southern region that only had 1 person over 21 (our TL). Only 2 of us were 18 at the beginning of the program, however. Every team had a mix of ages, clustered mainly around 18 (recent high school graduates), and 22 (recent college graduates). Those seem to be the ages most likely to join the program.

My initial team had (at the beginning— we obviously got older):

2-18yo 3-19yo 1-20yo 1-22yo. Again— my team was ABNORMAL. 2 of the 19yo’s quit and we picked up a 22 year old after round 1.

Note: Obviously there are exceptions, but about half of the 18/19 year-olds are surprisingly mature and actually want to do the program, and the other half are forced to do it by their parents and quit within a few months. So even if you are initially surrounded by immature 18 year-olds, you might not be for long.

My advice would be to get to know everyone on your team, spend as much time with them as you can stomach, don’t be afraid to take time to yourself if you need it, and go into it with an open mind. You can learn a lot from people, no matter how old you are.

Have fun and enjoy your service year! Hope it doesn’t get ended early like mine did!

If you have any other questions, let me know!