Hey so this post I would like to give some gratitude. I had an amazing conversation today with a young man. He’s only 12 and he is seen by some people as a person who isn’t willing to try and who is stuck or ignorant. I used to believe what these people said but today I put my guard down and decided to step into his shoes. I learnt about what an intelligent young man he truely is and his ability to listen and understand concepts that are out of reach to even some of the most “wise” of our community. We spoke about intelligence, experience, growth, expectations, liberal humanism, freedom, universes, education and tertiary education. He showed these perspectives that would be considerably out of reach for “his age group” but he was just so open minded and assured in the fact that he wouldn’t know everything but he was confident to know what he did and didn’t know (if that makes sense). I guess what I’m trying to say, if you’ve read my earlier posts, he is truely intelligent. He has a curiosity and a persistence that completely out goes what other’s expectations of him are, it saddens me to see that some of the people around him don’t see how incredibly intellectual he truely is.
Id like to touch quickly on the idea of mentoring, what I believe mentoring is. Mentoring is the holding of space for people around us and especially the youth, being able to provide them a safe space to expand their ideas and thoughts free from judgement and scepticism. I do not consider myself a mentor but I do try to offer as best I can the space I hoped for growing up. I hope for all times sake I can give this young man the space he needs to grow and to become confident and curious.
I would also like to reach out to you guys and ask that you try and do the same whenever you can. It is one thing to speak, but it is another to listen; help to assist the future generations in growth and assurance. They after all will be running this world one day and I hope they know as much as they can to improve what we have built so far.
This is a bit of a ramble but I hope you find something from it, good luck :))
