Hi, Lovelies.
I had another lesson that I’ve learned from college, but realized that it deserves its own blog post. It is about mentorship.
Definitions
The Cambridge Dictionary describes mentorship as “the activity of giving a younger or less experienced person help and advice over a period of time, especially at work or school.”
And Merriam Webster Dictionary defines it as “the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor.”
For me, mentorship looks like having role models who I look up to and are an example of how I want to live my life. Additionally, they are the people who I turn to for advice, correction, and guidance. I can confidently say that I wouldn’t be the woman that I am now if it wasn’t for the mentors in my life. Especially the older women who guided me into adulthood.
My Bonus Grandma
A little vulnerability here, I got kicked out of my home at a young age and got taken in by an amazing older woman named Norma. Norma is a grandmother with two grandkids of her own. But she opened up her home to me and gave me a safe place to figure out how to enter adulthood. I now consider her and everyone in her family as my bonus family. She has one of the biggest impacts on my life and has shaped who I am as an adult.
Because of her, when I’m older, I strive to be a home to those who need it, to speak my mind and to be confidently myself.
my bonus family
Career Mentor
Recently, I’ve also participated in a mentor program called Ambition in Motion. It was this program that set me thinking about all the mentors that I’ve had in my life and how very different my life would be if I didn’t have those women to guide me.
Through that mentorship program, it allowed me to meet my mentor, Abigail, a beautiful black woman from the UK, who is a principal of an international school in China. The things that she is doing with her life and her desire to lead is truly inspirational. I’m so glad I got to meet her.
Life Mentors
Not only her, but also women at my church like Christy, a mother who is in touch with her own feelings and relationship with God and shares her wisdom with me. Or Sandy, a grandmother, who is always willing to have fun and has a generous heart. And Ashley, a young woman in her late twenties, who suffered a stroke, but still chases after God’s heart and desires to help others. All of those women helped me learn to drive, gave me advice, encouraged me, and were role models in my life.
When I came to Oklahoma for college, I also was taken under the wing of a Navajo woman and her mother, Tina and Margie. I met them at church and I was so lucky to have someone supporting me when I was so far away from my Kansas family.
Trips with my mentors Christy and Sandy
Therapy
My mom is a therapist, so I have always known the power of therapy, but was a little adverse to it partly because my mom is one. However, I would be remise if I didn’t give a shoutout to my current therapist, Joanne, who has so much life experience and has shared her wisdom with me.
I remember her telling me that I need to pick only about five people’s opinions to care about. Those are the people closest in my life and model a life that I would want to live. Everybody else’s opinion doesn’t matter. Just listen to the opinion of those five. And I can definitely say that she is one of the five. I told her this in our last session because I couldn’t remember who had told me this. Joanne was like “I said that. You do listen to what I say.”
You do listen to what I say.”
Final Thoughts
Mentorship is a word that keeps on getting repeated in my life. I am so lucky and blessed to have so many mentors in my life, who guide me to make the right decisions and pick me up when I fall. I truly believe that we should always have mentors in our life and that eventually we should start mentoring others. It’s not just a career aspect, but just a life aspect.
So I suggest going out, find an older person either in your church, in your workplace, or just a mentorship program and form a mentorship with someone. It’s not just a mentorship, but also a friendship that changes your life forever.
