Having the chance to be a mentor this year was one of the bright highlights of a rather trying school year. My first-year mentee was Kai Bull. Kai is from Springfield, Ohio and is currently an undecided major. She began the year as a Psychology major but has recently started considering Women and Gender Studies! As for her desire to come to Ohio State, she was looking for a big school in a city with opportunities and students who are impassioned. Overall, she was hoping to find community, despite its large student class.
When it comes to what Kai and I have in common, I think we were a bit surprised at how many similarities kept coming to the surface. We both have a bit of social awkwardness and anxiety, yet I found it comforting and fascinating that we never seemed to come across this way to each other. I think we’re both goofy people who may seem shy at first, but where we align the most is in our interests. At our very core, we love to spend our time sleeping and watching TikTok, YouTube, and movies. We both love to do art and have a passion for social justice and caring for others, as well. We love One Direction, Starbucks, and pop culture, too, so there was never a time when we didn’t have something to catch up on. I think when it comes to differences, we differ a bit in our work ethics. I enjoy scheduling and planning along with trips to the library, whereas Kai is so chill and takes things as they come. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised if we could both be found wrapping up a procrastinated paper at 4am!
I definitely saw a lot of growth with my mentee. The first semester, Kai seemed a bit more aimless and unsure of where her passions may lead her. However, this second semester, I think she branched out a bit more and had some successes actualized that validated things about herself. For example, she was really proud of herself for winning the Bob Ross painting night. Also, when we went to Clay Café, her pottery ended up making it to the Facebook page! In terms of academics, she seems to be figuring out what she enjoys and what she does not, especially in making that decision to be an undecided major and homing in on the prospect of Women and Gender studies. I can see her focusing much more on who she wants to be and where she sees her passions coming together. I can also see that she is much more social. I think it’s hard to adjust to college life, so that first semester can be a trying time, especially when there aren’t as many opportunities to be meeting new individuals. That being said, I could see that she had many more memories she wanted to relay to me this semester, and I think a lot of that had to do with being more comfortable on the campus and with her roommate.
I think I grew as a mentor in a variety of ways. Leadership has always been something I strived to enact, which my mom would gladly attribute to me being the oldest child. I was able to see myself branch out and have this desire to try new things, even in the simple stuff like the busing system. I also saw myself feel confident in leading events elsewhere, like summits or meetings through my internship at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Overall, I’ve learned how fun it is to meet new people and share new experiences. I’ve had mainly the same friends since seventh grade so branching out and trying new friendships has never been something I felt like I needed to do. However, this experience showed me how rewarding new friendships can feel. I hope I was able to guide Kai in the areas of mentoring, socialization, and orientation even in simply just being there or speaking about my own personal experiences. College can be tough because it feels like you are doing almost everything on your own. It can be hard to navigate and know things as simple as what to buy for a class. I hope I was able to be that person for Kai that she could ask questions to when she was confused or even rely on for reminders of events, even if I struggled to remember them myself! Overall, I had the best experience being Kai’s mentor, and it never felt like an extra task on my list. I had a great time getting to know Kai, and I look forward to hanging out with her the next schoolyear!