Yesterday I was listening to a guy I really respect talk about his mentor. It took about two seconds for my hyperactive (narcissistic?) brain to jump to: “Wait. This guy is healthy, passionate, wise, real, vulnerable, slightly dangerous, dang funny, and he’s committed to a life of being meaningfully transformed.
“He’s all that and he has a mentor…
“I need a mentor!!”
I might have missed a few things he was saying while I went down that bunny trail, but when I tuned back in, he was saying something like: “I don’t know what I would do without mentors to process my life and my questions with. I think I might die!”
Possibly a little overdramatic, but I still like the guy.
Then I realized, um, I have thought exactly those same words—I might die—and in the very recent past. Like within the last couple months. And there is at least one reason I didn’t die.
My mentors.
Yes!! I realized right then and there that I absolutely do have mentors. I have wise, trustworthy people in my life who I have opened myself up to, good, bad, and ugly. They listen, they affirm, they encourage, they speak truth, they challenge, and most of all, they help me interpret and grow from (or at least just survive!) my life experiences. They help me get unstuck. They help me expand in all the best ways. They have lived things I have not, and they are willing to share their perspective when asked, offering it only as their own perspective and not forcing it to also be my reality. They wait for me when I need time. They walk with me when I need support. They see things in me that I don’t—good things and hard things—and, over time, and when I ask, they help me see those things too.
Oddly, until now, I hadn’t been thinking of these people as mentors. I mean, one of them gets paid by me. Does my therapist, really count as a mentor??? I’m gonna have to say a big y.e.s. I’m not sure how I would have survived some parts of my life without Miss Sarah’s wisdom and coaching every Wednesday afternoon this past year. She is doing way more than triage. She is equipping me in life-changing ways (and bringing a whole lotta hope to R-kids’ lives as a result).
But two of my other mentors… Well.
Here’s to doing life together, Heather and Emily. And here’s to friend-mentors. I love you. And, thanks.
by julie rybarczyk
Photos by Heather (in Florida…!)
4 Comments