Once again I find myself facing another "last" moment as I wrap up this project for the year. I've decided not to think about this possibly being the last year to do this project. Maybe I'll convince the Boy to help me continue it next year? So ...
As I think about all of the things I STILL haven't gotten around to sharing, one in particular comes to the forefront of my mind ... the Boy is a natural mentor or teacher. We first started noticing it as he worked his way through the ranks in his judo class. He didn't care to go to competitions and while he liked earning new belts, what he enjoyed the most was teaching techniques to new students. His instructor made a habit of pairing experienced students with new ones and this gave the Boy his first taste of teaching.
Since then he has put himself in a position to tutor his friends at school and he loves to try and teach his Dad and I whatever new concept he is researching.
But by far, his biggest role as a mentor has been with the UIL Computer Science Team. He lucked out and was introduced to the team by a couple of really influential student mentors that encouraged him to take an active role in mentoring as they both graduated and went on to new challenges. He took up their charge with complete abandon! He spends his summers developing training materials that he uses for weekly lessons and then tweaks those materials or develops new stuff depending on the need of his students.
His hard work has had an immediate effect as well! Last year, even with the Boy being the only returning upper class-man on the team, he led them to a 3rd place finish in district competition and qualified for region! They only narrowly missed a bid for the state level competition. He has spent his summer again preparing materials and done even more recruiting in the hopes of taking the team to state for his senior year!
As we look ahead to things to come, I could very easily see him gravitating to a field in which he can continue to develop his mentor mentality. There are so many variations in which that could come to pass that I do not want to speculate on anything specific, but I am certain, in one way or another, the Boy will find a way to continue helping others to develop shared passions.
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