High School Mentoring 9/11/2010

       Long and I worked with a high school student whom I will refer to as Maria. Before officially meeting Maria, I could tell she was shy and low key, for lack of better words. I was a little nervous to actually begin talking to Maria, because I was not sure if I could get her to let loose and just talk about her ideas. Fortunately, I had Long right by my side. Maria had some great ideas written down. She had began answering some practice questions she received from the mentoring program here at UR. While working with Maria, I started to get the sense that she was allowing her shyness to keep her from fully expressing and exploring her ideas further.  So, Long and I gave her some advice on how she could formulate her ideas fully on paper. With that, she began writing and putting pieces of her ideas together.
        As time went on, Maria seemed to be struggling with the process. She was thinking about the writing way too much. She reminded me of myself during my college essay process. I was the one struggling with starting my essay because I was stressing myself out about it. I remember talking to my older brother about my essay and he gave me the best advice anyone could give: "Just write woman! Write! If you spell something wrong, don't cross it out or erase it. If you make a mistake, don't stop. Just write! You'll have time to go back and fix your errors, but for now, just keep writing!" So, when I realized that Maria was having the same problem I once had, I related my brother's advice to her: "Just write! Don't worry about your mistakes, just keep writing!"Unfortunately, Long and I didn't have enough time with Maria to see how everything ended up for her. I learned a lot from Maria, too. Her ambitions actually impressed me and motivated me to keep going in school. She is a brilliant girl, and I hope that her essay writing process ends well!