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Who are our mentors? Who or what do we consider the greatest influence in our lives? The answer may be less straightforward than you might think.
A mentor is defined as a close confidant; a person, who guides and enlightens us, gives us knowledge and support. It is a unique and intimate partnership. A mentor can be any person, even those who we’ve never met. Great philosophers and writers can teach us as much from their writings and much can be learned from the examples of historic figures.
We all have mentors. In fact, whether you know it or not you are probably someone’s mentor, simply by example. A mentor can be there to guide you for an hour, or a lifetime.
It is what you take from the experience and what you do with the information, where the value and benefit is truly found.
I have been home schooled all of my elementary and secondary academic years. I have few, if any, regrets throughout that process, but many rewards because of the experience of independent study that only home schooling could provide.
Now we are at the end of one journey and about to embark on another and as a student of Royal Academy, I am sure we have all packed well for this new and next great adventure.
As I look to the path ahead, I also look back. I can see from where I have come, what has led me to where I am, and what will guide me into tomorrow.
My mother and father decided when I was 4 years old to step outside of the norm into homeschooling. It is my belief that I would not have the academic foundation that I have today had they chosen the public [school] path.
I am thankful for their dedication to that course and the many sacrifices, which were made in order that I may have the advantages that are afforded me today. Much of my persona comes from my mother’s astuteness and my father’s resolve. My mother has always reminded me that I have choices. Her favorite saying is that even if all the choices stink you have to hold your nose and choose the one that stinks less and then move on, because it will not always be that way and the rewards will be many as time goes on.
My father is probably the most visionary person I know. He is the only person I know that can be drinking juice, look at the swirl around the top of the bottle, and design a water-powered unit from that experience. He is an inventor and a “man of the environment”, always seeking to feed the multitude from a handful of carefully sown seeds.
These are my closest mentors, and as the years progress will continue to influence my life in more ways than I can yet realize .
My friends are my mentors as well.
They have taught me to be secure with differences and respectful of personalities. They have helped me to be comfortable in my own skin by being myself and not feeling the need to pretend or play a role simply to fit in. They are my brothers and sisters and I am privileged and indebted to them for their open-mindedness and many kindnesses.
It is essential to have the right kind of friends. Essential friends give us wisdom in counsel, prop us up when we are flagging, and lighten our burdens with laughter and good times. Essential friends care for you as much as you care for them. They are not found in numbers, however they are the ones of, and which, sustaining memories are forged.
Least not that we forget our teachers. Untiring individuals with an enthusiasm for sharing and gathering knowledge, which they extend to us in so many infinite and direct ways, in such that our horizons are broadened much of the time without us even having any acute awareness of their magical cause and effect.
These teachers delight in injecting a little zest into the learning process. Thank you Mrs. Boswell for the right pinches of this and that which you injected into my last four years.
I have had the good fortune to be taught by teachers with a passion for their area of expertise and who genuinely care for the wellbeing of their students thus providing a holistic academic experience. I will always be looking for teachers by these identifying characteristics as they hold the tools and technique for my future success.
Each of us is a mentor to someone at some point in our lives, no matter where we are, and no matter what we are doing, others are learning from us, by our example.
This is a rather stunning thought that we can be a change of fortune to an unsuspecting individual without making direct contact, simply by observation we can speak to them on so many levels.
We are not separate from each other and therefore we can be taught from any life station and situation.
As Kahlil Gibran wrote:
All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; There is no border between you and the closest thing, and there is no distance between you and the farthest thing, and all things from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest are within you as equal things.
Congratulations to us all!
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