A Letter to a Future Mentor

The following is something I wrote for a mentorship application, and I felt that perhaps it was worth sharing here. If anything, I’ve determined that many of the stories we write ourselves into just by being are made better for sharing so that others can reflect on their moments and place in time. We all learn together and gain nothing by keeping our paths hidden and separate.

To The Person I Am Asking To Mentor Me,

Just like the picture attached, I’m at a crossroads. I have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles in the air, on highways, backroads, and on foot. I’ve seen hardly a fraction of what the world has to offer, and yet, with every taste and every new experience, I find myself increasingly challenged to understand my place and purpose. Seeking has led to finding and, in turn, more seeking, more finding, and…well, you understand this intimately. And now, well into my fifth decade on this frenetically rotating ball of air and dust, I need to find what’s next.

I don’t approach this lightly. I’ve worked in information technology for much of my adult life, dealing with the ups and downs of technologies, new developments pretending to advance the human story, and seeing some of the best and worst in people. Before that, I was in social services and therapy, viewing the world through the fragile, the marginalised, and the oppressed. In each circumstance, I’ve had the mirror held to my psyche and my personhood and found myself lacking in one small part or the other.

I’ve turned to writing and photography, crafting stories of my moments and interacting with the people and places this world has on offer. I’ve delved into what it means to tell these stories to a wider audience and what it’s like to capture the unaware and the understood. I’ve marvelled through lens and pen what Nature has proffered through experiences, her terrifying beauty in the waterfalls and wind-swept plains of Iceland and the Faroes. I’ve witnessed the simple joys of coke-can wheels on a wire-hanger car, held in the hands of an indigenous boy in Eswatini, and marvelled at how contentment can be found in the simple and mundane.

I’ve perhaps complicated my experiences by trying to quantize and summarize and…all the “-ize” things that we, as Western adults, do and yet, I find I’m still lacking. I’m lacking in the space of the unknown, the unquantifiable, the knowledge that the more I understand this world and the tools used to capture it, the less I truly “know” about what we are.

I’ve come to you with a quandary, a crossroads of my own devising. I’ve come to the place where skill with an instrument, pen, and edits and AI can’t compete with a simple conversation. I’ve come to recognize that while I may be destined to work in this technological space for a period of time yet to be determined, I’m desirous of being more than just a sum of blood and bone, of plastic and metal, of sound and sight.

I can offer only my willingness to learn, to strive to understand the differences between light and dark, colour and contrast, and how we compose the stories that move people. I don’t seek greatness, for that is a complication and complacency that far too many people misunderstand. I seek understanding, wisdom, and the knowledge of turning digital imprints to meaning, art and science into conveyance.

We’ve had conversations, you and I, and I’ve always left scratching my head, smiling in my heart, and wondering. That, in essence, is what drives me here. I want to impart the same to those I am blessed to encounter, my fellow travellers and humans. Be it online or in print, in person or disembodied, I feel that the road ahead is paved with promise, and regardless of where your decision inevitably falls, I know I’m a better person for having met you.

May it ever (and always) be so.

May these words also resonate in your soul as you reflect upon the people you’ve had occasion to bless with presence and purpose. And, in all things, may you find rest for your soul, knowing that you’ve done incredible things, however small or insignificant you may feel, that have changed the course of others’ lives.

May it ever be so (again and again).