Models and Mentors

So for this week's blog, we were asked to identify individuals who we viewed as a mentor or a role model.  After identifying those people, we were asked a few questioned about them.  They are as follows...

• What makes your experience with those individuals so meaningful?
• I would say that one the most meaningful experience that I have with these individuals is that they all treated me as an adult.  I was the youngest of four in my family, and because of it, I have always had to "grow up"  faster than most kids my age. And because of the fact that I really always appreciated having people be completely honest and open with me, instead of treating me like the "age" that I was. 
• Another experience that I've found most meaningful is when my mentors or models open up to me, or find comfort telling me, when there are rough patches in their lives.  I think that it can really go to show just how much trust they have in you.
• How did you find or attract those mentors?
• I can honestly say that there is no set method that I have used in finding or attracting mentors, it usually happens pretty randomly.   I guess in school finding a mentor was the easiest because all you had to really do was pay attention, and try your best in class.  This usually got the teacher's attention and pretty soon they started to kind of open up and not have such a strict, professional manner.  Once that happened, it was pretty easy to develop a relationship more on a friend basis instead of a "teacher, student" basis, and then after that I was able to really talk to them about other things in my life.
• How might you bring new mentors into your life as your life changes and you move into new phases of your personal leadership journey?
• I think this is a difficult question to answer.  As I've said, my mentors and models have always come into my life rather randomly.   Other than my parents and family who have been around my whole life to teach me whats right from wrong and issues of that nature, I would say that new mentors are going to surface throughout your life to help in whatever issue you may have at hand.  
• And then… who are you mentoring?
• I guess there's really only one person that comes to mind.  I would say that currently, I am helping to mentor the next chapter president of our fraternity.  He's the one who I think will be best fit to step into the role of chapter president next term (Mentally, emotionally).  I guess my purpose right now is to just help him get ready for all the tests and trials that a chapter president has to go through (IFC, SFL, the various issues that arise within a chapter, dealing with people on a professional level, etc).
• In the future, I will be mentoring incoming first-year students through the FGBLC program.  Which is going to be pretty exciting.