Mentoring; Or, Trying to do Something Good

So after groaning about how meaningless and unfulfilling my actual job is for years and years (I wish I was exaggerating), I'd given some thought to finding a volunteer opportunity that might help me feel like I was less of a waste of space. My thinking was if I found some great outlet to "do something good," then I could work my craptastical job in order to keep paying the bills, but I could have this other outlet to help me feel like I was contributing something back to the world.

One afternoon a few months back, I just happened to be reading http://www.nky.com/, which I typically do not read, since I live in Cincinnati and, like most Cincinnatians, I tend to tune out anything that happens south of the stadiums (not actually true, but I do think that's how most people in Cincinnati act - as if Northern Kentucky is the hinterland or at least someplace where people wander aimlessly and barefoot while eating road kill, drinking moonshine, and marrying their sister - but that's a topic for another post). However, on one particular day, I noticed a blurb on this website about an information session on mentoring programs in the Covington Public Schools. That was it - this was the volunteer opp I was waiting for!

So I trotted off to the information session - as did about 20 other retirees. While I was a little confounded to be the only under-40 in attendance, I still decided to submit my application. I've now gone through what I think has been a pretty impressive process of application, pre-mentoring education, and background checks aplenty. I am struck and saddened by the extent to which the school district has to screen its mentors - but it's a necessity, I am sure, and I would far prefer to spend my morning being interrogated, being fingerprinted, and giving people too much personal information than what the alternative might bring (really - my weight? - am I going to be disqualified for being too fat? Eegad.).

In any case, I have one last hurdle - an in-home visit and some final training before I am matched with a student. That will happen next week. I'm sure I'll chronicle my mentoring escapades here to some extent -- but I also wanted to do a quick plug for mentoring programs around the area. If the statistics I've seen in my trainings are any indication, we have a lot of kids in this area who really need the good influence, support, encouragement, and stability of a mentor in their lives. In some cases, it really could make the difference between life and death for some of these kids - and for others, it may just make their lives a little less painful.

I hope I live up to this.