Mentor - mentoree; who figures in your life?

[elisedance]

I remember one particular high school teacher.  If you'd known him, you would have considered him an unlikely mentor -- he was crotchety, blunt, and had zero tolerance for foolishness.  But I came to realize that he did a lot of things to clear the path for anyone who was willing to stand up for themselves and explain why they deserved an opportunity.  Standing up for myself was a difficult lesson for me to learn, so his teaching was quite valuable to me. 

About eight years ago, I was assigned a protege at work.  This was a new experience for me.  The protege was a young lady who had interned with the company; she had just graduated and was starting full-time work.  I quickly came to realize that she was not only bright, but also very self-motivated.  There were also things about her, mannerisms and such, that I found familiar, and in talking, we eventually realized that we had had a lot of similar childhood experiences.  We wound up bonding on both a professional and a personal (but non-romantic) level.  This served us well when we went through an intense, gut-wrenching experience together a couple of years later: working side-by-side for about thirty days straight on an incredibly difficult and demanding project.  We, our whole team, went through it together thinking that we were building a bright future for our group and for the company that was our customer.  We pulled together and we were about as solid as any project team anywhere, ever.  My protege and I practically worked as one person, one mind, during that time. 

Unfortunately, literally minutes before it looked like we would achieve a successful outcome, tragedy struck.  Through no fault of our team, there was a horrible accident; people got killed and millions of dollars invested were lost.  It was very public, and it resulted in a change in national policy that made future projects like the one we were working on impossible.  Our customer eventually was put out of business by the financial impact, and our team was scattered to the four winds.  I helped my protege through this period, and she helped me, before we were both eventually transferred to different projects. 

She's doing very well now, in an engineering leadership position that keeps her very busy.  And she's happily married, with two children.  The guy she married is a great guy.  She dodged pitfalls, in both her professional and personal life, and I think I can take some of the credit for that.  She returned the favor by giving me a lot of insights about myself. 

what a fantastic and inspiring story C.  You know I don't think there is anything better in this world than getting close to someone you respect and like - and the amazing thing is that romantic/physical aspects are (IMO) most often irrelevant to such experiences.  Meeting of minds... thats what its all about.

[QPO]

It is wonderful to be able to have such mentors in your life or the opporutnity to be one yourself. Everyone grows from the expereince...Very uplifting

[Bordertangoman]

I have St. Francis some where in my sub-bonscious

[StageKat]

Love that Cornnut!!!

I have been fortunate that each successful phase of my life has presented me with a mentor that I have valued beyond words.

Unfortunately fate has also taken these mentors out of my life for whatever reason and I have never been able to properly thank them.

I do currently have a very effective mentor who helps me in ways no one would ever think possible, (My own reasons keep me from naming him here) and learning from past experience I let him know he's appreciated and valued as often as I can.

[elisedance]

ouch - I wrote a long mentor post earlier but it didn't 'take' (or I put it in the wrong place )

[cornutt]

Unfortunately fate has also taken these mentors out of my life for whatever reason and I have never been able to properly thank them.

I my case, there was one in particular that I never got to thank (not mentioned in my previous post).  And I don't think her family would mind if I mention her by name: Dr. Frances Roberts, of the University of Alabama-Huntsville.  In high school, I was, for a variety of reasons, disengaged and diseffected, and my grades suffered for it.  Because of that, I didn't have many options for college.  Dr. Roberts, a professor of the humanities, had the wisdom to recognize an engineering geek when she saw one.     Her recommendation got me a probationary admission to UAH.  In two quarters, I erased the probationary status.  I finished in 3-1/2 years and graduated with a GPA just short of honors -- I probably could have made honors if I hadn't been working for most of that time. 

I left the area right after graduation and moved to south Florida.  When I came back, five years later, one of my first tasks was to seek out Dr. Roberts to thank her.  Unfortunately, I missed my opprotunity; she had passed in the meantime.     There is now a building named after her on the UAH campus.  It's no mean feat for a humanities professor to get a building named after her at an engineering school!   

[elisedance]

Indeed C.  Nowadays most places only name buildings after donors - its a quid-pro-quo

[Bordertangoman]

I didn't quite escape from the Dementors

[dream a little dream]

So you are now soulless?

[elisedance]

no, he's just stopped meaning to do anything...

[SwingWaltz]

Research/Industry? 

[emeralddancer]

I am having mom/mentor/coach withdrawal ............ I think I need to either write her or call tonight!

[elisedance]

I think that would be your main womantor EM......

[Bordertangoman]

So you are now soulless?

a ghost dancer

[dream a little dream]

Lovely image, but sad. 
Sounds like the Wilis from "Giselle", although I doubt you have been betrayed in love by a faithless man.