N’Spired Thoughts By Reynisha Lindsay
To understand the need for mentorship, one must understand the purpose of a mentor. If you do not recognize the importance, you will not realize what you are missing. For me, mentorship has always been a part of my success since I can remember. I think my first mentor apart from my parents, was my great Aunt Claudette. She was always well put together and spoke with authority. She belonged to a Sorority (of which now I am a member) and exposed me to cultural events and opportunities that otherwise I would not have been privy to. She chartered the first chapter of her sorority on the college campus she attended. She always carried herself in a manner of dignity and intelligence. She was and still is, a lady in every sense of the word. She was born in an era were women were ladies. They walked a certain way, dressed a certain way and spoke eloquently. Men opened doors for them and courted them. She taught me what it meant to be a lady by her actions, her words and her mere presence. I wanted to be a lady like her before I could even express it. Before I even knew what a mentor was, I knew she had a strong influence over my life since I was 11 or 12 years old. She, as well as my other 3 great Aunts, was always at all of the important milestones in my life and I thought (and still do) that I always wanted to be like them. They were driven, intelligent, fashionable, and proper but not “sadity”. For those of you who are not familiar with that term it means snooty or stuck up. I learned simple things from them like where to spray perfume on your body – the pulse points. And perhaps, none of this “lady stuff” appeals to you. That is okay if it does not. The message to take away from this mentorship is that my Aunt taught me something I did not know. She taught me about something that I did not have experience in, but I was at an impressionable age where I needed to be guided and molded. One important thing to note about a mentor is – they know what you don’t know and they have been where you have not. Thus, making them knowledgeable and experienced. They are experts. An expert is someone you
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