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.
About a year ago, I had a dream my dad wanted to talk to our family about something serious. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to discuss, but I knew it was something I needed to prepare myself for. Around the time after I had this dream, I remember stopping by my parents place and sensing something was going on that they weren’t telling me. I tried to dismiss what I’d been feeling, but I couldn’t shake it. Something serious was happening. As I returned to my home after visiting them one day, I was in my kitchen washing dishes when a heaviness hit my heart like nothing I’d ever felt before. Something’s wrong with dad. That’s what that dream was about. God, what’s going on? As I continued washing dishes, I started crying and praying. Then in mid-spring, my dad held an unexpected family meeting that would change all our lives forever. He hesitated at first, and as his voice started cracking and he started crying, he said, “Well, I wanted to talk to ya’ll to tell you that I have kidney disea...