Let's Just Talk: A 7 Month Reflection on Mentoring for Eldera...

In May of 2025, about a year after retiring from education, I found myself ready to begin giving back. I documented the beginning of that journey through a reflection on my first Eldera Hangout with my mentee right here on this blog. It's been about 7 months since that first hangout. In this short post I will focus on one major move we have both made that has helped our mentor/mentee relationship evolve.

That "move" comes from the fact that we no longer need something to "support" each hangout. In the beginning I prepared Google Slide decks with activities and questions to share with my mentee. I found a book on Kindle Unlimited that we would read together. I also scoped out websites that had free online games for us to play. We haven't read with each other or played online games for months. And, I ditched the Google Slide decks a long time ago. It all felt too much like school. So what are we doing for the better part of an hour? Talking. I carried the load to begin with which is not a surprise. After all, my mentee is only 11 years old. However, a cool thing has happened over the course of our veering away from the "support" we relied on early; my mentee is asking me questions that I was asking him when I was carrying the conversation and, he often "beats me" to the punch.

For example, I might have ask him a question about how things are going with his fencing class. He'll answer and follow up with, "How are things going with rock climbing?" I'll ask him if he has a lot of homework to do after his fencing class. He responds and follows with, "What are you going to do after our hangout?" I may ask him how his weekend was. He'll tell me all about it and follow with, "What are you doing this weekend?" Before we know it, the hour has passed and it's time for him to go.

Now I'm not saying that we will never read with each other again or play an online game. Both are fun and worthy of our time. However, I think we've both found what each of us is looking for in our mentor/mentee relationship; someone who will listen.