Jimmy Jang
Management
Paul Schaller
7 February 2018
1st
Mentor Blog Post
I met with my mentor for the first
time in a long time over this past weekend. We decided to grab a meal together at
Crosstown in Naperville. He graduated from Wheaton College in 2017. I knew him
before I came to Wheaton College as a freshman through mutual friends from
church. He was someone who helped me get accustomed to my first year at college
and navigate through the difficulties associated with that. During my first
year, I was also considering transferring to UIUC where most of my friends
went. However, a significant part of the reason I decided to stay was
influenced by the positive advice he was able to give me.
Our conversation started with
simply catching up on each other’s lives. He is preparing to start graduate
school at Trinity next year and is also interning at a church as a youth
pastor. We also talked about future plans which I said I wasn’t too sure about.
But I brought up the topic of internships which is something that has been on
my mind over the past couple of months. I told him about my search and the application
process I’ve been going through and he gave me some references from his church
that could help me in the area of Business Economics. He asked me about how my
semester was going knowing my involvement with a lot of extracurricular activities
this year in particular. I told him about how it was difficult managing
extracurricular activities and schoolwork because I found myself focusing more
on my extracurricular activities. He reminded me that staying committed to my
relationship with Christ is something I should be focused on as well which led
me to talk about a devotional email chain that I am doing with my friends from
back home. We are all going through the same devotional together and since
there is one for each day of the year we email our thoughts and convictions on
this email thread to stay connected with each other. I told him how it has been
helpful to me because it helps me to stay accountable and also stay connected
or technically involved in the lives of my friends back home even though we all
go to different colleges. Although his conversation was mostly catching up
because we haven’t seen each other in a while, it was really refreshing to just
get to talk and be listened to by someone I know who cares about my wellbeing.
JimJam!
ReplyDeleteI think that's really cool that you are staying in contact with friends from home! Having that community to be able to go to and vent frustrations, successes, etc. is so life-giving and I hope you continue to do this. I am realizing I need to make an effort to stay connected to those from my past, and you post reminded me of the importance of maintaining connections. The Christian walk is not meant to be alone!
As Josh said, I think that keeping a relationship with your friends is important and on top of that being involved in their spiritual lives. I totally understand how we can often overlook the whole spiritual part of our lives as we go through college and extracurricular activities. It's also great to have a mentor that not only can help you out with internships, but also give you advice on your walk with God as well.
ReplyDeleteJimmy, a mentor that is willing to just listen to you without always trying to teach lessons or force a message on you is special. It is important to find someone who is willing to listen to you and understand what you're going through. Of course, a former graduate from Wheaton is going to do exactly that. I hope that this relationship continues to help you grow
ReplyDeleteI really like how you're going through a devotional each day. I think its easy often overlook our relationship with Christ in the midst of our studies, but having a group to keep you accountable definitely helps. I've been trying to be consistent with my daily devotionals so hearing you making an effort and keeping your friends accountable encourages me a lot.
ReplyDelete