Serving Others through Mentoring

So as many of you know, as part of my employment, I am required to volunteer 40 hours a year.   That time can be completed during working hours or outside of hours.   At the end of last year, I was challenged by my manager to find an area that I was passionate about and strive to focus my volunteer time with my passion.   So I thought about about it and came up with my passion being helping children.

So since January, I have spent a hour every Monday with this precious 9 year old girl that lives in one of Raleigh's public housing complexes.   Sky (that's not her real name, but I will call her that), has been having problems in school with her reading skills and was selected to be a part of the mentoring program through the local YMCA.

So twice a week Sky attends a mentoring session and each session lasts an hour.    And one of those hours/sessions was with me.   Every Monday, I went and met with her and we worked on her reading, writing, spelling, comprehension and other language arts skills.

However, I think that there were times that I learned just about as much as she did.   She reminded me every week how much I take for granted about what I have and the home life that I had growing up.   I had a nice house to live in, full meals to eat, my own room and two loving parents.  I was particularly blessed with a mom who was a teacher and would take time to work with me on my school work.   Sky doesn't have that opportunity, but now she has had me in her life.  And I feel blessed to be a part of hers.  

I forget sometimes how my life experiences have shaped me and sometimes I amazed her when I just talk about some of the events that have happened in my life and things that I have experienced.   And I'm not talking about big events, just small things.   One week, she got so excited to hear that I had a car and owned a house.    She insisted on seeing my car after our session.   Then one week, I mentioned that I went to the zoo over the weekend and he insisted that I show her the pictures that I took.   But then she told me that it was sad that I didn't have any children, because she thinks that I would be a great mom.   I told her not be sad, but that one day I would.

After Monday afternoon, I so looked forward to our time together each week.  I meet with her at a local church that is located behind the housing complex.   She would walk over after the school bus has dropped her off and we get to work.  We usually chatted for a few minutes about her day and weekend while she enjoyed a healthy snack.

My favorite time of the hour is game time.   If she had done a good job and had stayed focus, I was allowed to play a game with her.  The games were sometimes pre-determined and had some educational value.  But sometimes they were just fun.   One week we played Connect 4 and she beat me.   But that's okay, I got revenge the next week when we played Scrabble (thanks Words with Friends for all of the practice).

But as always all good things sometimes come to an end.   And last week was my last visit with her.    With the upcoming end of the school year, the mentoring program is now on break for the summer.   At the year end banquet that was held last week, Sky, presented me with a picture of the two of us that was taken during one of our sessions.  I have placed it on my desk at work and I smile every time I look at it.  She also asked me if I would be her mentor in the fall.   It made me cry.

So until the fall.  I can't wait to see what other opportunities I may get to encounter and I hope that Sky continues to grow in her education.