Mentorship/Friendship

I am blessed to come across individuals that easily become mentors in my eyes because I admire their work, ethics and obvious passion. My mentors are people that I look up to — people who teach me how to help others. These relationships are ones I value and they don’t necessarily need to be nurtured on a daily basis. We can go months without communication, but once we do, the reciprocal relationship of give and take come back full force. Many of my mentors are teachers, acquaintances, friends that I meet by chance and interact with based on similar interests.

I’m fortunate enough to have learned from my very first mentor that it’s completely okay to ask for help and to seek out individuals through things like informational interviews, which are opportunities that you purposely set up with a professional that you would like to learn about. Today, I’m going to talk to you about Sherri, my very first professor at Temple University when I was studying the field of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media. Boy, did I love the way she taught media. She made our lessons come alive — all with style, professionalism and engagement. I admired her because she gave and deserved respect from her students. Her door is always open whenever I need to make sense of the worries on my mind. Our relationship began in the classroom but it continued as I studied Children’s Media, interviewed at PBS Kids Sprout, networked with children’s media professionals, studied abroad in London and worked at the National Association for Media Literacy Education. She taught me how to embrace creativity in more ways than one. I am studying to be an English teacher now, but Sherri really was the one that guided me towards this path of finding a career where I can thrive. She taught me to be an example in the classroom, to go explore streets and neighborhoods during my pass time, to present myself to others with confidence, to roam around finding bits of inspiration.

Sherri was the one that first introduced me to the Myers Briggs Personality Type test. I’m either an ENFP or an ENFJ — still haven’t quite made a decision about that yet. But, the point is… what college professor takes the time or makes the effort to teach her students about finding themselves?! Sherri does, because she cares about giving her students the tools necessary to live life beyond the principles we learn in class. She even takes the time, every year, to organize a get-together for all of us London students… just because she’s awesome.

Who are your mentors? Who inspires you? Go out and thank them right now!

A Serious Second Look at Strangers

Stranger danger echoes in my ear from the memories of my first few years in the school system. Such a negative association to a word introduced to me by concerned parents and teachers. The caution was always to never talk to strangers, which was probably their way of instilling within me a mental self-defense mechanism to protect me from unsuspecting harm.

But, I think today, strangers are people. When I’m standing on a platform in front of the subway, I am most certainly a stranger. We’ve all been trained to walk fast and purposefully down a city sidewalk. We’ve all been taught to hold tight to our belongings inside subways, trains and airplanes.

Public transportation, however, is swarming with different kinds of strangers. Sometimes, I find myself snapping out of this cold, disconnected role I play as a stranger watching out for other dangerous strangers. I like to observe the crowd that has chosen to divert their glances, plaster on blank expressions, and turn off any awareness for true human interaction.

Every once in a while, a stranger makes me smile when they break the silence and strike up a casual conversation with me. What a pleasure to meet you! Words like spontaneity and serendipity are not normally associated with the interaction between two strangers. But, I believe they go hand in hand!

My memory takes me back to the moment I was sitting quietly on a bench in the middle of London. A notebook, a pen and the observations I’ve made about my travels were my only companions. Suddenly, a tap on the shoulder interrupted my thoughts. A middle aged man cautiously asked me if I could watch over his luggage while he used the portable rest room located at the busy street corner. Without hesitation, I chose to help him. (My family members reprimanded me later on, reminding me that the luggage could have been a disguise for bombs and explosions.)

The man, however, returned for his bags and seemed both astonished and grateful all at the same time. Thinking back, he may have also assumed the worst of me, suspicious that the bags would have disappeared in an opportune robbery. I smiled at the man as he repeatedly showered me with thank-yous. He immediately walks to the outdoor flower boutique across from me and brings me back a beautiful bouquet of white lilies, his symbol of gratitude. My mouth drops open in shock and I sheepishly accept the gift in pleasant surprise. As the man walked away towards his next destination, the flower shop owner and I exchange looks of unbelief.

So many of us are taught that strangers are dangerous when we really need to learn the fine line between reservation and interaction. I wonder, will we ever stop being uncomfortable with the idea of a stranger?