Community Impact
Mentorship Is a Two-Way Street
I went into a mentoring relationship sure I was the one with something to teach. I came out of it having learned more than I gave. A note on staying teachable.
One of the most important relationships in my life started with me cast as the mentor and someone older and wiser cast as my guide. Somewhere along the way the roles blurred. He told me once that he’d realized I was also a mentor to him — and that sentence rearranged how I think about giving back.
The best mentorship isn’t a transfer from full to empty. It’s two people staying teachable in each other’s company. The moment you decide you’re only there to pour into someone, you stop receiving — and you model the exact closedness you’re trying to cure.
Bridge-building works the same way. You don’t connect communities by standing above them; you do it by standing between them, taking something from each side and carrying it to the other. That only works if your hands are open in both directions.
So I try to walk into every room — including the ones where I’m supposed to be the expert — assuming there’s something here I don’t yet know. It keeps the work honest, and it keeps me growing.