On this Good Friday many students in New Bedford and Fall River are excited to have this wonderful, sunny day to relax and have fun! But I know one little girl who wishes she was in school today. She'll remain unnamed for privacy reasons, but she just happens to be my very, special mentee.
I meet with my mentee every Friday morning at her elementary school and our session has been interrupted for 2 weeks now. Once by the MCAS testing and this day by Good Friday. I was chatting with her on the phone yesterday** (read note below) and was saying how she must be soooo excited not to have school tomorrow!! But she replied with a simple "No." When I asked her why she said because she was going to be missing SMILES again. It was really touching to hear her say that. I'm sure other mentors out there, reading this can relate to those simple moments when your mentee expresses to you how much they care for you. As program manager I've had mentors share simliar moments with me, but it's even more special when students come up to me and tell me "I look forward to coming to school on Mondays, because of SMILES -- if I have any problems I know I'll be able to talk to my mentor about them."
If anyone out there is missing their mentee today or would like to share any special, unexpected moments you've had with your mentees! Please share below.
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**In addition to participating in SMILES with my mentee I also am able to spend time in the community with her through the partnership SMILES has developed with Big Brother, Big Sister. This allows me to talk on the phone with her and take her to really cool places. Like this-->
(North Conway, NH)
