Mentor Blog #2

Yesterday I got another chance to catch up with my mentor. Since basketball season is over, it was nice to reconnect with someone I hadn’t seen recently. We talked about many different things. We started by just catching up. We talked about the current events in our lives and discussing the stress we were feeling about the upcoming weeks. She is also double majoring so she mentioned that she was under a lot of stress this semester. We then started talking about our family backgrounds. I had never really heard her background story, so hearing her describe her family was really interesting for me since it gave me a good perspective on how she grew up. It also helped me realize just how important all of our backgrounds are.

We also talked about the idea of resting. Even though our season had just ended, there’s always a sense that the offseason is not about getting rest, and its exclusive purpose is to get better. While improving is important in the offseason, my mentor emphasized the importance of also resting. She talked about how taking days and even weeks off can be better than working out every day. This, she said, was due to the fact that the offseason is also about improving your mental health. Having this conversation took the usual pressure of the offseason off of me.

We briefly talked about handling situations graciously, regardless of the circumstance. As a leader, she leads gracefully and talking with her helped me not only learn by her example but also by her words. We also talked about how to handle conflict with friendships and how you address those and move on from them. Specifically, we talked about the importance of going directly to the friend we are having conflict with instead of telling everyone else about it.

Overall, we talked about a lot of different things. As always, it was great to talk to someone who not only gives great advice, but also lives that advice out as well. Being able to find time in both our schedules to get lunch turned out to be a big blessing for me. While we are in different phases of life, her actions are still applicable to me. While her advice was great, the best part about meeting with her was more about being able to relax than it was about seeking advice specifically.