As a mid 20's outdoorsman I have had countless mentors through my life. Only recently have I been able to begin repaying my debts as a mentor to other folks. It's an incredible feeling to pass on the gift of knowledge and has only made me more grateful to everyone that has helped me along the way.
So true and so well written I learned a long time ago if you get someone that knows things that you want to know to teach you be humble, grateful keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Very grateful to everyone that first had the patience to teach me anything and the kindness to do so. Now it is my turn to give back and to leave what I have learned with others. Particularly the younger generation.
Glad you found a network of friends and mentors to guide you during your transition to the Midwest and its potluck, long goodbye, no 3 times culture. You might even find a local mentor who has the “best” scotcheroo recipe.
I love what Ben says below about how mentors don't always even know that they're mentoring you, and I feel *certain* that many of your followers (me very firmly included) think of you as a mentor, even if they've never met you, or only briefly. (I feel the same way about Holly, especially after the sea duck hunt.) I think of a mentor as someone who somehow opens a door into the world of their knowledge, and invites you in to frolic around in it. I've been mentored by so many people who were exceptionally generous with their experience and expertise, and it is the thing that inspires me the most to pay it forward in the same way. Thanks for the reminder.
I've always had a hard time finding mentors in my varied pursuits, and not for lack of trying. There just don't seem to be many available in the right place at the right time. I have however heavily leaned on "long-distance mentors" who have popped up at exactly the right time with the exact information I needed to progress. Whether it's via book, website, YouTube channel, or podcast there always seems to be new information available to me right when I need it, which has been serendipitous. You're included in that Hank, having put out the perfect book about fish right when I really needed to step up my fish game, so thank you for that. Having in-person mentors really accelerates the learning process though (fewer dead ends and roadblocks as you said), so I still keep my eye out for good mentorship opportunities.
Here is a thing I find interesting...I think many of my mentors do not know they mentored me, or if they have a fuzzy idea that they might be my mentor, when it was they mentored me. Their impact often comes not in in an identified 'lesson', but in transient, casual interactions which may be significant only to me. A mentor fills in gaps and clarifies cause and effect that I overlook, expanding my experience. They make me feel more prepared, contextually grounded and in tune with experience. By extension, this means we mentor others without knowing and must take each step with care and awareness of our impact on others.
It’s also so heartening to discover and/or know folks out there who truly excel at outdoor skills and handcraft skills of all kinds. It’s getting rarer to find *real* skill, versus professed (not!) skill on YouTube or whatever.
I know what you mean; for most of my life my father was my mentor along with my Grandmother Mortimer and my Aunt Ruth, now my cousin Bobby and his wife Becky often act as mentors to me. It hurts to lose a mentor, I lost my grandmother to a massive heart attack, Aunt Ruth to cancer that we're not even sure where it started. by the time it was found in August, it had already spread throughout her body; in December it reached her brain and she died in her sleep just after midnight Dec. 25. My Mom, her older sister, had stayed with her the last two months of her life. Grandma Mortimer had passed seven years earlier, just before I found out I was pregnant. The last book she gave me was a copy of Dr. Seuss's One Step, Two Step that she had been sent in the mail, just a week before we lost her. My son David was the only great grandchild she never got to see. We lost Dad just after I moved out on my own after David graduated high school, complications of pneumonia took him in the hospital. He was in a coma the last two weeks of his life. My almost indestructible logger/hunter/homesteader of a father finally met something he could not beat. Within a year Mom joined him, dying in her sleep almost exactly one year after Dad passed. I miss them all. Grandma Mortimer was a willing teacher to everyone who wanted to learn; it was from her that I learned to crochet, sew and can. Aunt Ruth was actually more of an older sister than an aunt to me; we were just a double handful of days over being ten years apart. Like me Aunt Ruth never married and never tried to conform to what people expected of her. She taught me to love science (but not math) and research for the pure joy of it. And Dad taught me everything he knew about homesteading, butchering, hunting and logging even though I never picked up a chainsaw. I got very good at grading logs under his tutelage and up until five years ago did so for several loggers and sawmills in our area. Cousin Bobby and Becky have helped me get my own apartment and apply for any programs I need to survive on my own while making me a part of their large family. They leaned on me when Bobby's father died this last year and I helped them in handling Uncle Bob's increasing dementia in the two years before we lost him. I'm sure there are other mentors out there for me. Hank, you've become something of a long-distance mentor to me in my journey to becoming a better cook as have the family of Chinese/Chinese American cooks at the Woks of Life website. And I thank you for that.
As a mid 20's outdoorsman I have had countless mentors through my life. Only recently have I been able to begin repaying my debts as a mentor to other folks. It's an incredible feeling to pass on the gift of knowledge and has only made me more grateful to everyone that has helped me along the way.
We all look back at some point and realize who our teachers have been.
So true and so well written I learned a long time ago if you get someone that knows things that you want to know to teach you be humble, grateful keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Very grateful to everyone that first had the patience to teach me anything and the kindness to do so. Now it is my turn to give back and to leave what I have learned with others. Particularly the younger generation.
Glad you found a network of friends and mentors to guide you during your transition to the Midwest and its potluck, long goodbye, no 3 times culture. You might even find a local mentor who has the “best” scotcheroo recipe.
I have an idea on that last one.
I love what Ben says below about how mentors don't always even know that they're mentoring you, and I feel *certain* that many of your followers (me very firmly included) think of you as a mentor, even if they've never met you, or only briefly. (I feel the same way about Holly, especially after the sea duck hunt.) I think of a mentor as someone who somehow opens a door into the world of their knowledge, and invites you in to frolic around in it. I've been mentored by so many people who were exceptionally generous with their experience and expertise, and it is the thing that inspires me the most to pay it forward in the same way. Thanks for the reminder.
Yes. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words, Hank. It’s always a blast hanging out with you, and the knowledge in mentoring flows both ways. 🙏🙏🙏
I've learned a lot from you already, and I'm looking to learn more as time goes by.
I've always had a hard time finding mentors in my varied pursuits, and not for lack of trying. There just don't seem to be many available in the right place at the right time. I have however heavily leaned on "long-distance mentors" who have popped up at exactly the right time with the exact information I needed to progress. Whether it's via book, website, YouTube channel, or podcast there always seems to be new information available to me right when I need it, which has been serendipitous. You're included in that Hank, having put out the perfect book about fish right when I really needed to step up my fish game, so thank you for that. Having in-person mentors really accelerates the learning process though (fewer dead ends and roadblocks as you said), so I still keep my eye out for good mentorship opportunities.
Knocked it outta the park...
Here is a thing I find interesting...I think many of my mentors do not know they mentored me, or if they have a fuzzy idea that they might be my mentor, when it was they mentored me. Their impact often comes not in in an identified 'lesson', but in transient, casual interactions which may be significant only to me. A mentor fills in gaps and clarifies cause and effect that I overlook, expanding my experience. They make me feel more prepared, contextually grounded and in tune with experience. By extension, this means we mentor others without knowing and must take each step with care and awareness of our impact on others.
Yes 🙌 👍
It’s also so heartening to discover and/or know folks out there who truly excel at outdoor skills and handcraft skills of all kinds. It’s getting rarer to find *real* skill, versus professed (not!) skill on YouTube or whatever.
I know what you mean; for most of my life my father was my mentor along with my Grandmother Mortimer and my Aunt Ruth, now my cousin Bobby and his wife Becky often act as mentors to me. It hurts to lose a mentor, I lost my grandmother to a massive heart attack, Aunt Ruth to cancer that we're not even sure where it started. by the time it was found in August, it had already spread throughout her body; in December it reached her brain and she died in her sleep just after midnight Dec. 25. My Mom, her older sister, had stayed with her the last two months of her life. Grandma Mortimer had passed seven years earlier, just before I found out I was pregnant. The last book she gave me was a copy of Dr. Seuss's One Step, Two Step that she had been sent in the mail, just a week before we lost her. My son David was the only great grandchild she never got to see. We lost Dad just after I moved out on my own after David graduated high school, complications of pneumonia took him in the hospital. He was in a coma the last two weeks of his life. My almost indestructible logger/hunter/homesteader of a father finally met something he could not beat. Within a year Mom joined him, dying in her sleep almost exactly one year after Dad passed. I miss them all. Grandma Mortimer was a willing teacher to everyone who wanted to learn; it was from her that I learned to crochet, sew and can. Aunt Ruth was actually more of an older sister than an aunt to me; we were just a double handful of days over being ten years apart. Like me Aunt Ruth never married and never tried to conform to what people expected of her. She taught me to love science (but not math) and research for the pure joy of it. And Dad taught me everything he knew about homesteading, butchering, hunting and logging even though I never picked up a chainsaw. I got very good at grading logs under his tutelage and up until five years ago did so for several loggers and sawmills in our area. Cousin Bobby and Becky have helped me get my own apartment and apply for any programs I need to survive on my own while making me a part of their large family. They leaned on me when Bobby's father died this last year and I helped them in handling Uncle Bob's increasing dementia in the two years before we lost him. I'm sure there are other mentors out there for me. Hank, you've become something of a long-distance mentor to me in my journey to becoming a better cook as have the family of Chinese/Chinese American cooks at the Woks of Life website. And I thank you for that.