by E. A. Mourn

Created on: February 24, 2009

She Saw Me

What must a teacher have to earn the label of mentor? There's no formula, but I think it's when a teacher sees something in a student, and tries to cultivate that "something". I was one of the lucky ones to have just such a mentor. As a fifteen year old attending community college, it's not shocking that I didn't exactly blend in. I loved to learn, so much so, I left public school in order to go to college. I had learned all that the public school system had to offer, and wanted to have a degree or degree(s) by the time I would have graduated high school. I was extremely strong willed, but the reason I went to college was that I loved learning more than anything. I loved it so much that I couldn't' decide what major to choose for quite a long time.

My main problem was that I was as much creative as I was scientific. I loved chemistry, math and physics, but had a love affair with writing, but didn't really know it yet. I didn't realize that I could obtain a degree in a scientific discipline that would ensure that in the hard times I would have a job, and could also keep writing as much as I wanted. I was taking some classes in history and met a professor who was one of the funniest and smartest women I have ever met. She was not just a teacher, but a grandmother, a carpenter, a sometimes auto mechanic, and at the time, was just retired from a job as the U.S. advisor for women in military service; she also had some really funny stories about Katherine the Great. Anyway, she had me hooked. I took every class she offered, and I have never been a history buff. It was the essays and her lectures that I loved. When others would groan about the essay tests she would give, I would smile (to myself so that I wouldn't be attacked in the parking lot).

Thinking I was a good writer, I was shocked to see that in one of her new classes she gave me a grade of C on an essay test, something I hadn't experienced before. I was crushed! She stopped me from leaving when class was over and asked me if I thought I deserved the grade. I, of course, being the little know it all I was, said no. She asked me what grade I thought the paper deserved and why. I thought for a moment and then recalled an essay that a pal of mine that I knew was not anything near as good as mine on the same subject, that received a B, and gave her that rationale.

She stared at me smiling for a moment, and then said, "You don't know, do you?"

I just stared at her, my eyebrows raised, wondering what on earth

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