The Power of a Mentor

One of the most crucial tools to have while pushing through your college career is a good mentor to turn to when times are tough or when you need a question answered.  This mentor could be almost anyone from friends, classmates, siblings, professors, or even co-workers.  Your mentor needs to be someone you can trust and also someone who has been in your position before.  My personal mentor was actually my manager, which some might find unusual. His name was Rusty and I could turn to him for help with ANYTHING, and consulted with him for help several times while in college.  Rusty was my manager at work, an early 30’s, open minded fun loving man who would help anyone if at all possible at any time.  Rusty was the manager of Hyder Burks Agricultural Pavilion and was a Tennessee Tech School of Agriculture Alumni so he had been in my shoes, he actually had held the same job as I and lived in the same exact apartment.  Rusty had this confidence and charisma about himself that was hard not to like.  At one point in my college career I was double majoring in Agricultural Engineering Technology and Mechanical Engineering and had registered for a very tough semester of Mechanical Engineering classes.  After three days in these classes I quickly came to realize that M.E. was not for me, ha ha like what I did there.  So what do you do when you are three days into a semester and realize that you completely messed up your class schedule and want to completely drop a major?  You freak out, or at least that was the case for me.  By the end of the third day I was sweating bullets and immediately turned to Rusty for help. He calmed me down and told me that we could get the situation worked out, he made a phone call to my advisor Dr. Baier and we were able to get all of my classes changed and drop my major.  I also turned to Rusty for more than just school related topics, I frequently asked him for advice on relationships throughout school, which can be a difficult topic for almost anyone.  From asking him about his thoughts on a new girlfriend to heartaches and breakups he was there for me day and night and had a solution for anything I could throw at him.  The lesson from this is find that one special person you can trust and turn to for advice or when you are in a difficult situation.  Find that person for you and never be scared to ask them for help, it is always easier for two people to figure out a problem than one.  The old phrase “two heads are better than one” comes to mind, if you can find this person you will have one of the most valuable tools of your college career.