I believe in the value of
mentorship. I’m blessed to have a handful of mentors and also be a mentor to different
young women in my life. T.D. Jakes once said, “Choose your mentors a la carte.”
I’ve got older mentors, younger ones, and even some who are the same age as me.
And what I love about them all is that they each have something different to
offer, and more importantly, can reciprocate what’s poured. I used to believe
that having just one mentor was best, until I realized the benefits of having others
from different walks of life, in my life. It’s incredible how much experience, guidance,
insight and value mentors possess. They can provide trinkets of wisdom that can
help guide you towards success, and even show you how to weather different
storms and challenges you may face in your life, and teach you how to glean important
lessons from those challenges. If you don’t have a mentor or any mentors, I
definitely encourage being open to explore who the ones are you should be
connecting with. These kinds of relationships are ones that can change your
life. From personal experience, I’ve found that having the opportunity to be
invested in, and in return, have the opportunity to invest in others, is a blessing.
I’m a Black educator in my fifth year of teaching middle school English, and in my third as the 8th Grade English PLC (Professional Learning Community) Lead. And while I genuinely enjoy the purposeful work I get to do, seeing the growth of my scholars, and continuing to hone my skills in a content area I’ve loved since I was a little girl, I’ve had to confront some unpleasant experiences in this space. I’d been through much worse when I was an academic advisor at a Christian university. Racism, sexism, harassment, and workplace bullying were sadly norms in that environment. However, some of what I’ve experienced as a Black educator hasn’t been normal … It doesn’t seem normal to be the only Black educator in my department – in a predominantly Black school. One of my Black colleagues once said, “It should look like a Tyler Perry movie in here.” But it doesn’t. It didn’t feel normal being reprimanded in a meeting (during my second year of teaching) by an administrator who went in on...