A mentor is a person who you look up to someone you aspire to be like to emulate. A mentor has character traits that you would like to proses or emulate. A mentor is someone who has been through the journey you are going through and can give advice and council based on experience and wisdom. Wisdom is the application of knowledge and experience. It is taking the knowledge you have learned and the experiences you have had and molding them together in order to create wisdom for the future.
I have had many mentors thus far in my life and I am sure I will have many more as I progress in my career and in life. To start with the most important ones:
Mom and Dad: taught me so much lessons that they had learned through hard experience and painful times. How to live. How to love. How to aspire to greatness. How to never give up even when you are only 300 strong and facing the entire Persian army of 1,000,000!!!
David Penskar: Second semester Squad leader (08) at USMA. He was a role model of what a servant leader was. He cared for us and was willing to do work for us. He would talk with us like we actually mattered to him even though he had enough work of his own to do.
MAJ Blackmon: a great instructor who was an officer I would someday like to emulate. He was competent and fun loving but also he knew what was right and he made sure everyone did it.
MAJ Ralph: he had a real view of the world and he would BS with you but when it came time to work he would crack skulls and kick people in the butt to get things moving and the job done to standard. He also wanted people to learn and grow and develop. He had some a clear picture of where he wanted his people to go and how to get them there, I was blessed to get to spend time with him this summer and have a good relationship with him.
These are only a few of the mentors that I have. But here is the scary part for me. I see these guys as mentors and to know how I look at my mentors and how I follow their every move and listen carefully to their every comment. To know that there are people who view me as a mentor is scary because what if I mess up what if I do not live up to their expectations of me? I once had a father tell me that I was a role model for his sons. I was scared to death, what if I mess up what if I do something terrible.
I came to realize that I did not have to be scared. I had to remember the extreme gravity of the position I am in in this person’s life but to understand that I have to be me. I have to live my life now worrying about what other think about me but focused only on what God thinks of me. I have to dedicate my life to living to the best of my ability and leave the rest up to him.
So not so scary as first anticipated but still a great responsibility but an even greater honor and privilege that God has led me to someone who can benefit from seeing my life the good the bad and the ugly.
Welcome to the real Joey...if you want to watch just remember i am only human :)
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