Mentors are important.
Mentors and people to see and want to hone in on the potential in you is an important slice of life, because too, my own personal experience was such that I had a mentor back when I was 10-13 years old who worked her damnedest to shape my thinking, prepare me for life, and worked hard to oversee my not falling into the traps and perils of poverty.
Despite my being from a neighborhood of drugs and poverty and crime myself, as a drama and dance student myself (from 4 through 8th grade) I attended a school for the performing arts-which (unlike most kids that lived in my neighborhood and neighborhoods like such)–they don’t get the chance to experience the sounds of a piano playing classical music bouncing off the walls of the hallways, fields trips to broadway shows and the opera, or staying after school ‘til 7:30p working hard towards a recital or upcoming show, or stuff like that. It’s a different world. Outlets like such are a necessity (especially crucial for youngsters who come from less fortunate backgrounds).
With my mentor as my art teacher and getting to know me personally, she took me under her wing and became my “momtor” of sorts where she picked me up from home most weekends, and we had girly dates at the movies, dinner dates out, tours of her beautiful home, etiquette sessions-all that (I loosely based a part in one of my novels off her/the experience. She’s Oscar Roberton’s wife’s sister/husband a dean of a college, an artist, a successful business woman etc).
At any rate, what thwarted our relationship was that I got a boyfriend, who (like most homely, virgin, middle school girls that get “discovered” by that cool, cute guy in school that all the girls want) I got caught up and smitten. And this tug of war between my momtor, this “boyfriend” of mine and my willingness to drop dance (since it required the most discipline of my mind, my body, and my time); caused major problems. I simply wanted to make due with being an art and drama major-minoring in creative writing and be left alone with time for my boyfriend and whatever time left: my momtor.
Well that wasn’t the plan we had already worked on for almost three years before middle school and my getting a “boyfriend.” That caused a big rift between my momtor and me until eventually (as you’ll read in the links 3 links back), she left me. She completely gave up trying and went away forever.
Long story short (which can be read in all 3 links back), but the point is, as a young girl myself who understands the power of discipline, the importance of having an outlet and somebody willing the take the time to hone in on you; when my “kindred” spirit connects with that (like here in my March 2014 writeup-I tune in).
I remember (like I say in that piece about the MTV mom Farrah-who elected to do porn, get breasts implants and delve into this Internet life versus using her influence on the teen mother front-and serve as an inspiration to them-over this circus out here)–I remember saying “why would you elect the whore route when the ‘mommy’ route can be just as lucrative if money is your motive?”
But then too, I had to answer: maybe attention is the motive too-the kind of attention that’s “rewarded” today that too, makes money for her. And besides (I said to myself): “Didn’t you take the ‘whore’ route too? You had somebody ready to get you off to a great life and was prepping you-not just talking you through it-but preparing you for it via her resources and influence and you ruined it, too.”
Moral: everybody does things on their own time and according to “life” as they see life (for them at that moment from the windows of their own eyes’ future).
And it’s a tough fight trying to guide a young mind and show them the gem in discipline, and focus when they have so much pressure or temptation around them.
“I want to give you wings so you can fly can just give you the tools to compete on the world stage as a dancer, as a doctor, a teacher, anything you want” -Smallwood.
Despite having someone holding my hand every step of the way to show me and lead me on to my way, as somebody who was that very same young person who had the pressure and the potential, I have a keen and adoring eye to the point of being awe-inspired when I see a young person succeed in ways over the pressures they’re faced with. I know the amount of discipline and focus it takes to not be the “typical” young person caught up into the “typical” young person things.
So fast-forward, and in considering the advancements in technology in addition to the typical pressures all young people face, when I see triumph over that (today) I’m amazed because they have twice the pressures you or I did when we were their ages.
Considering the fact that we don’t see or hear about their stories too often because it’s so overpowered with other things (or “typical” young person things), I feel that a special kind of light should been shined on them because the discipline and focus it takes for them to achieve whatever it is in sports, the arts or education they are in/doing. It serves them in life-period (even if they decided to juggle cans on a corner for a living).
So in closing, like Dwana Smallwood (and like now-I can see and understand through the eyes of my momtor) when you get your hands or eyes on that young person who has the potential, you want for them or fight for them (or in my case from here-my platform): you want to marquee their journey and destination (and for me too: know their ritual or methodology for getting their goals met in the midst of perils and pressures around them).
Although from this platform and in this section for each of them, we may never find out just what their ritual or methodology was that helped each stay focused and disciplined; I do believe that with a collection of enough of their stories, their peers can be inspired to know that it’s “cool” and a fun way to “turn up,” too (and we’ll all figure out how they figured it out)…and so begins the contagion of inspiration and motivation turned determination (giving us the answer to just what their ritual and methodology was after all).
These little stars and others like them are important in this universe today.
They have the will, and we (momtors, or mentors, or Dwana Smallwood’s) just need to assist with, or shine the light on the/their “way.”
