"Differential Diagnosis"

A mentor is someone important in your life, usually older and more experienced. Such person gives you advice and guidance throughout your journey. Luke Skywalker had Old Ben Kenobi teach him the ways of "the Force," the Power Rangers had Zordon, Robin had Batman, Neo had Morpheus.  The Mentor protege relationship is as old as time itself, and such a relationship is important for personal growth to occur since mentors have a way of pointing out flaws/errors which we might not see in ourselves.

Most people have a set of mentors present since day 1 of their lives, their parents.  Unfortunately, there comes a time when the protoge outgrows the need for a particular mentor, or the mentor no longer has anything new to teach the student.  The Power Rangers may have eventually lost Zordon, Luke Skywalker lost Ben Kenobi, and Robin left Batman to become Nightwing.  Growing up, our parents seem to be "all knowing," but as we get older and wiser we start to learn of their mortality.  The questions we may have, the answers we seek, we soon realize that they don’t have them and must turn to others for knowledge.  Thus begins our school years…

Only a handful of teachers during  school ever made any kind of significant impact above and beyond their teaching duties, and I’ve had the pleasure of returning the favor for one of them by writing something that would later be used to successfully score him a job in his time of need.  Given the chance, I’d willingly help out any of my favorite teachers.

During our professional lives we require a new mentor, which in my case have been more than several different people.  Cruz R showed me the importance of true customer service, Victor McK guided me through the basics of wireless networking, Tony G helped me stand on my own in medical information systems.  These are just some of the few that have mentored me to become the great person I am today.

Much to my dismay, it seems that I currently find myself without a professional mentor which has made professional growth in my field almost grind to a halt.  I’ve taken steps to reach out and acquire a new mentor in order to continue my improvement, but before I can truly continue my growth, I need to be ready to make a difficult decision and posses the constitution to carry on with the choice I may make.  Continuing my current path towards a bachelor’s degree has, and still is, the plan.  Its the next step which I’m currently trying to figure out, and hopefully I’ll receive a helping hand from a wise, as of yet unknown mentor in the near future.

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1. ScoMan says:

   December 23, 2008 at 4:51 pm

   The whole time I was reading this I was thinking about the various mentors I’ve had, mostly in my job.

   One girl in particular springs to mind. When I first got my job, three different people tried to coach me and teach me the different processes for this particular firm. She was the one who really managed to get through to me, and she became the one that spent the most time with me.

   She then went and had a few kids, and didn’t work much for about two years. Even now she is back, it is only two days a week. As we work in the ever changing field of Tax, she has fallen behind on what is happening, whereas I have been continually honing my craft and keeping up to date.

   Just a few months ago, she made a comment to me “I remember a time when it was me that had to teach you, now you have to teach me.”

   Yes, sometimes the student does become the master.

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2. Thrice says:

   January 11, 2009 at 1:30 pm

   Zordon!!!! Omg! I loved the power rangers…I wanted to be Kimberly! (superblush…I’m feeling silly right now).
   btw, hi Scon (I’m not surprised to find you here, somehow we frequent the same places)

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