Weekly Reflections #05: Mentors and Role Models

Hi community friends! I guess we are doing just fine as the weekend continues to wind down. I will be discussing and making my entry on the topic in view. Mentors or Role models are exemplary personalities in our lives. They are usually people we've exceptionally placed on a higher level due to their impact on our lives.

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A role model or a mentor may be one or more in our lives. In cases where there are more than one, they may assume to play different roles in our lives. For me, I have more than one mentor who has impacted positively in my life. Their major impact levels are in my academic and career paths.

These are the two major players in everyone's life. Aside from our parents who did play their path of parenting and upbringing which cannot be over-emphasized given the importance of such foundation in our lives. Ordinarily, without the laid foundation, there is no way we would have had the full opportunity to meet those we call mentors. So, I give it to them as our first mentors and role models.

That being said, I will want to talk about my academic mentor or role model. Associate Prof, Nkeiruka Ben-Chendo is one person every serious-minded student would want to pass through due to her down-to-earth (humility) mode of teaching. She is a master in student-lecturer relationship management given her approach to handling all concerns efficiently and effectively.

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I happen to know her through my uncle and since then, she has been the best fit for purpose to me. She followed me up in all my academic work life and ensured I was not lacking in any aspect. Most importantly, I was not allowed to be intimidated by any negative instrumentalist of lectures who sometimes may want to frustrate their students.

This was evident in my project defense when she intervened when it was obvious my project supervisor was victimizing me. I reported this issue and he was summoned. Disgracefully, he said he had an inlaw who bears the same surname as me and he treated his elder sister who was late very badly. This was how I was victimized for an unknown course. But good enough, he was replaced and I got a favorable supervisor who brought out the best in my thesis.

She gave me a good academic foundation and was a pillar to always remember. She has been in contact with me and how best to further my postgraduate studies, which I won't forget given her role in making this work so far. I missed an opportunity to further my career in the school environment, but it was an experience and a lesson for another day. Through her, I've been reawakened in my academic consciousness.

The second mentor was my first boss in my first career (Mr Enisemo Moruf). He was a gentleman that showed me what discipline was all about. He is someone who clearly showed me the difference between work and pleasure and how best to stay focused.

Up to today, those learnings are used in my everyday life at work. I've been able to know how best to work efficiently. This has helped me in life in handling people. Discipline, working smart, and objectivity are part of the few that his mentorship planted in me.

Imagine not having this career life foundation, I would have been prone to more mistakes in my career path which may likely cause me the job. His mentorship planted so many ideologies that kept me a step ahead of my workmates.

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You see all these I've mentioned, I've equally had the opportunity to to tell them how best they have impacted my life when our paths first crossed. I can remember the first day I mentioned to her how she had been the best being I've come across since my academic life, she was amazed and said "Thank you for choosing me as your mentor".

The same was also applicable to Mr Enisemo Moruf. A man of his word. A man that is a boss at work and a father at home. We lived in the same apartment while at home but a disciplinarian and goal-getter at the workplace. He knew he was my first boss and wasn't surprised when I called him my mentor. When I went for a banking exam and passed, he called me and said, I trained you well and I know you will do well.

Thank you, to the organizers of this contest. It was good writing about these great people in my life. They deserve better days ahead and to be remembered while the coast is clear.

I want to invite @ruthjoe, @kidi40, and @tammanna to join the contest.