Mind Matters: A Mentor Spotlight

Who was your mentor?

I was about to enter 2nd grade when I visited the first Bagel Nosh in NYC during one of my regular trips to New York Cit-ay! Eating my first bagel was not the culinary experience that I had heard about from adults. Chewing a bagel gave me my first headache. Imagine sitting on the playground swings, nursing a headache at 7 years old. For many years after, any bagel was affectionately called “headache bread.” It is one of the many unique adventures I can recall from visiting the city that never sleeps. By the way, I took a nap to get rid of that headache.

Aunt Rita and Uncle Mel lived in Manhattan at 520 West 114th Street in a 2 bedroom apartment for $149 per month. My aunt attended Columbia University for free. I am forever amazed she received two masters in Education. My uncle worked in finance. All three of us were originally from Philadelphia. My aunt and uncle took turns teaching me how to roller-skate on the red-bricked pavement at the Columbia University campus over a summer in the late 1900s. Hanging out on Columbia's campus across the street at that impressionable age, I was surrounded by books, critical thinking, and intelligent educators. I was famous for asking, “where are we going next?” The weirder, the more wonderful. Aunt Rita and Uncle Mel were willing participants and had a curiosity to learn about something new that day. I adopted this outlook. During some summer evenings, their friends would emerge from the cranberry colored elevator door that lead to the apartment’s black front door with a gold number on the exterior for a potluck meal. For me, the long checkered linoleum hallway doubled as an indoor skate path so I could answer the door quicker. Anything from a vegan dish to a delicious bowl of lumpy cream of wheat might have been on the menu. The lumps were my favorite.

To this child, a descent into the NYC subway system was the equivalent of a trip down a rabbit hole and resurfacing at a possible mad hatter tea party in the form of a wooden play-ground in Central Park, art museum, public art installation, food place, chess match or the July 4th fireworks by the Hudson River. Any of their friends that joined could have been from a different country or culture which added to the enjoyment. NYC was my adventure place, a perpetual field trip where I would absorb as much culture as possible. I didn’t care where we went. If a subway ride was included so much the better.

When my aunt and uncle moved back to Philly to be closer to family, I admit NYC did not have the same feeling to me knowing that those particular adventures were over. There were other shenanigans and escapes, most of them thrilling and thought-provoking. I thank my Aunt Rita and Uncle Mel for facilitating my cultural exchange program that began as early as elementary school and became my recipe for life into adulthood, for my ability to explore and for giving me the ability to look forward. Grateful for you and for my memory palace.

Some people go through life without a mentor to set them up for success. I have been led by those mentors who were generous with me. I have experienced that it is better to volunteer and do social good for artists and to support the arts. Sign up to become a mentor or a mentee!

Be positive, active, curious and often out of your depth.

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