Over the past year I have been meeting almost every week with a 12 year old girl who has grown to be a good friend. We have done a study of Hannah (Samuel's mom), memorized Scripture (the entire first chapter of James and a few other verses here and there), and now we're about to finish our study of Lies Young Women Believe. It's been an incredible year.
Since my freshman year I've had 4 women whom I have called mentors. Some have been called to other tasks, some just haven't worked out, and thankfully the one I have now is truly a God-send, promising me she won't leave me hanging. And she hasn't.
But from those 4 women I have learned so much. Grown so much deeper in faith... been challenged.. Learned the importance to reading Scripture. Little did I know how much I needed to do that for someone.
Being Maya's mentor has taught me that mentoring is a two-way street. I teach, she listens. She asks, I answer. Not only that, but I ask, and she answers. She asks, I don't know, so I find out. If you ask her, she can tell you that there's been many times where I don't have any earthly clue what to say, and so I've pridefully stumbled on my words, creating a jumbled mess of greater confusion. Or times when in my mind I know what to tell her, but when it tries to come out of my mouth it can't seem to piece together correctly.
But I try. And that girl is so patient with me.
With women in my life, I look up to them tremendously. I can't imagine Maya would look up to me that much, but if I think about it, I guess she does. She never gets mad or frustrated with me, even if I start sounding like a mom, don't know the answers, or change our plans last minute. She never ceases to give me the biggest of hugs and smiles when I barge in her house. It's the true definition of unconditional love.
When I leave for college in 35 days, the time I spend with Maya will be cut from 15 hours a week to maybe 10 hours a month... and that kills me. As I was leaving her house last week the tears began to freely fall when I thought about leaving her. Middle school is a very transitional time for kids... and for a preteen girl who is becoming more of a woman each day, emotions and friendships are crazy. I feel like I'm abandoning her when she may need me most.
But also, selfishly, I don't want to be away from her. We have so much fun together... swimming, laughing, just being like sisters. There are VERY few people who I can say love me no matter what I do, and going into a world where those people aren't makes me feel a little frightened.
Thankfully Maya has set up a Skype account, so I can keep up with her face-to-face in the years to come. And I'll probably be back home by the time she's about to enter the dating world. Whew, boy.
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