A short story of friendship through mentoring

Sadie is a kind-hearted, thoughtful and shy girl who I have had the pleasure to mentor over the years. Don’t let her demeanor fool you, though; her love of wild hairstyles, hard metal music, and bizarre humor are the very things that make her an amazing spirit to be around. When I first decided to become a mentor, I dove into the opportunity as soon as the advisor mentioned its arrival. When I first met Sadie, her small stature and dyed black hair paired with the bleach blonde highlight in front of her face gave me the idea that she would be a hard one to connect with. I could not understand the lyrics to the most common screamo songs.

However, Sadie enlightened me on the misconceptions that society has taught many to make. Sadie proved to be an amazing young girl with a brain for hilarious remarks, and thoughtful insight to give to her close friends. She instantly welcomed me into her life and opened herself up to any help that I could give her, in fact, she admitted she had wanted a mentor for quite a while. I began to tutor Sadie, take her out to lunch, invite her to sports events and support her through the common high school dramatics. I found her to be an incredibly strong young girl with a head that focused on the well-being of others before herself, and I began to realize that the “desirable”, materialistic aspects of life won’t mean much in time. My grandfather once told me, “as a child, you come into the world crying while everyone else around you is smiling, but as a human on this Earth, you should leave the world smiling while everyone else around you is crying.”

It wasn’t until this year that I realized what my grandfather meant. A truly successful person, is the one who left their mark on society, the one who helped others in the most devastating of times.

Sadie is a girl who I would never have met if not for the mentoring program; she taught me the value in celebrating the uniqueness of all individuals.

Rebecca is a philosophy student who enjoys reading, writing and clever poetry. She volunteers teaching young students philosophy. Her blog can be found here.

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