The Mentor's Project

I can only imagine how quickly the color drained from my already pasty complexion. "Wh-what do you mean the test is today?" I nudged a fellow classmate. Not only had I not studied and not brought the book, but the class was halfway through The Rum Diaries, and I hadn't even had time to pry open the Amazon.com box in which it was shipped.

Reluctantly, I stumbled toward the front of the room, eyes to the floor, words fumbling from my mouth. I tried desperately to explain, I really did, but sheer exhaustion and befuddlement overcame me. "Forgot book, can't take test," is all that would come out.

"Just do your best," I was told. Between the nine hours a week I did of commuting, and the school work, shooting, written assignments, and interning, I was completely frazzled. Every day was absolute madness. I was already doing my best, and then some. Really, the craziness was nothing new. Those three years of my life, I was constantly being trained to act as a well-oiled machine. It was almost like they put a spell on me. Insert assignment specs and have images on their desk within twenty-four hours. Again and again. Pressure and sleep deprivation were just facts of life then. But as those days grew closer and closer to graduation, the machine began to break down...

Four months and counting, and the pressure had reached critical levels. That day reality came knocking, and I found myself face-to-face with a whole new monster--my impending future. It was all too much. Very neatly, I printed my name on the exam and calmly pushed it aside, succumbing to extreme pressures. I completely detached from the current situation (something that is usually impossible for me to do) and focused on that of a promising, yet uncertain, future.

Escaping that embarrassing classroom moment, I allowed the excitement of attaining my degree finally creep into my thoughts. It was the only light at the end of the tunnel that day, and I desperately longed for it. Instantly, an overwhelming sense of accomplishment immediately washed over me. Amused and even slightly proud of myself, I thought, "I really have come a long way from my little house on the prairie." A reviving thought, indeed.


...finding my voice in a visual world...

That was the day I dreamt up the Mentor's Project. It's a body of work that celebrates and offers gratitude for the individuals who have been placed in my life by divine appointment, and who have made an everlasting impression upon me. It is all about who I have become and who I will continue to strive to be. And although it's a project two years in the making, it is nowhere near being finished. Perhaps fifty years from now, it'll be close to completion...but who can say for sure?!

From time-to-time I'll post a story from my Mentor's Project. My hope is that you would take a moment to recognize those people in your own life that have perhaps 'pushed you a bit farther than you knew you could go,' just so you would grow.

Moral of the story: Passion is contagious. Be that change.