A Student and A Mentor
Another day for the student and the mentor to teach a new lesson, what will it be today? We will have to find out with the student…
The student arrives early waiting in the mentor’s basement office, the walls are filled with top to bottom dark wooden bookshelves with a mahogany office desk in the middle. A skyline window above where the sunlight can hit near the office desk. The student reads one of the books from the bookshelves and the mentor announces his presence, “That’s a good book! You can borrow it if you’d like?” The student puts back the book pretending to not be interested in it, then turns to the mentor asking what their lesson for that day will be. The mentor brings the office desk chair around and sits in front of the student and asks how the student’s day is going. The student replies, “Uhm... it’s going well? How is this our lesson?” The mentor tells the student it’s not, but it is important to always ask how someone is doing though it is a lesson for another day.
The mentor gets up from the office chair and asks the student, “Have you ever had any past regrets you wish you could take back? Because as most humans do, I do. I very much wish I could go to one moment in my life where I can take back that moment and re-live it. Change it. But, realistically, we can’t.” The student looks back at the mentor with plenty of memories that can be changed and re-lives the mistakes almost daily. The student answers the mentor, “All the time. It’s my motivation to make up for it.” The mentor gives the student an understanding looks as if the mentor has been in the student’s position before. Then, the mentor asks the student, “so, you don’t think it’s holding back in living?” The student looks at the mentor with a weird look, “Of course it doesn’t hold me back from living. I’m living right now, aren’t I?’
Though, that is not what the mentor meant, the mentor explains to the student whether the student has taken any risks in life like entering a competition, being in a committed relationship, or forgiving someone. The student tells the mentor, “No, I’ve always played it safe with my life since I’m familiar with it.” The mentor clarifies while pacing back and forth thinking, “You’re comfortable with it?” The student says, “Yeah, I’m comfortable with it. Because there’s no disappointment…” The mentor goes on to continue to clarify that the student is comfortable with it because there is no pain, the same pain that may have been caused from the past, so it stops the student from trying things out. The student says, “Well, I wouldn’t say it doesn’t stop me from trying things out. It just…makes me cautious, and I’m here. If I didn’t try new things, I wouldn’t have come to you for lessons.” The mentor agrees though says that being in a room to learn is different from being outside and LIVING to learn, and adds on that the mentor will always teach new students since it is the job.
The mentor goes to a bookshelf and grabs three textbooks stacked on top of each other, “Hold this. Now, tell me, how does that feel?” The student says it feels fine and can carry it just fine since it’s light. The mentor leaves again and gives four textbooks and puts it on top of the books the student is already carrying, “Now, how is that?” The student replies that it is manageable. The mentor goes to another bookshelf and grabs three more textbooks, then puts it on top of the stack of textbooks the student is carrying, “Now, tell me…” The student replies while struggling to not drop the textbooks on the floor, “It’s starting to get heavy. What is the point behind all this?”
The mentor goes to another shelf and tells the student, “The point to all this is when we keep holding onto the past, we will never be able to enjoy the moment right in front us because we are so focused on what we should have done or avoiding getting hurt that…” The mentor drops one textbook on the stack, “it..,” adds one more textbook, “weighs us down.” The student drops the heavy stack of textbooks. No longer capable of holding them. The student looks at the professor and says, “That was exhausting.” The professor continues on to share with the student that holding onto the past can feel heavy, and it can tire us out, and it can also keep us too guarded from the world and while in the process of guarding ourselves we could miss our chance of something beautiful.
