As I journey towards the last 4 of my graduate level classes for my Master’s degree in Criminal Justice, I pause to reflect on my mentor. I remember the very first class I ever took from her. It was called Intro to Criminal Justice. I actually took it as an elective for my Social Work program. I had heard a lot about her from other students coming from the other campus. You know how you get an opinion of someone before you even meet them? Well I as dead wrong. She was entertaining, outgoing, funny, smart, driven and I wanted to be just like her.
If there was anything about Criminal Justice you wanted to know, she knew, anyone you wanted to know, she knew, anything you wanted to do, she’d done. I was amazed and fascinated. Some of the funniest stories she told us in class had to do with some of the worst possible situations you can imagine. She made learning this difficult subject fun. As I mentioned before this was an elective for me, well not after this first class it wasn’t. It became my major and my passion.
As I continued my journey towards my A.S., B.S. and M.S., she was always there encouraging me along. Whenever I wanted to quit, or felt like I was too old, or too far behind the game, she was always giving me the encouragement I needed. You see, I started back to college at 37, after a 15 year hiatus, so I was ancient in the eyes of some of my classmates. I have been attending school non-stop since 2003 and say the least I am ready to do something different.
Well, she is willing to give me that chance. I will hopefully be teaching college classes at a two year university in my town very soon. This has been a dream of mine for a while. This lady has been my guardian angel, my encourager, my support, and my mentor. She may not want to be mentioned publicly because of the nature of her job, but she will know I am speaking of her when she reads this.
The reason I am writing this today is one, to publicly thank her for making a difference in my life, I could not have done it without her. Two, please, please reach out to someone and make a difference in their life. Become a mentor for someone and show them they can be all they can or want to be.
thegeekwife