Week 44: The Mentor -- in work and life

I recently got together with a former colleague who was visiting from her home across the country. She comes back to the area from time to time, but she has a lot of people to see here, including her daughter.

On this visit, our schedules aligned and we were able to meet for a long dinner together. It was absolutely great to connect in person, and it gave me the opportunity to tell this woman directly how much she means to me.

When we worked together, she took me under her wing and taught me a lot about analyzing and interpreting data. She also taught me things about working with challenging clients and coworkers. Together, we brought together colleagues from different divisions and got them to work as a team (which rarely happened at our company).

While she was a role model for me at work, she is even more so in her retirement. This woman moved across the country and made a whole new, happy life for herself. She has tons of friends, she is involved in numerous philanthropic and community activities, she is well read and up on the arts, politics and many other things. She's a true renaissance woman and I aspire to be like her.

I'm so thankful she's in my life and that I continue to learn from her.

Photo by Kobu Agency on Unsplash