Analyzing what my mentor said

In my analysis of the answers Alan gave me, I will first address the basics and then specific points that he made that I feel applies to my life.

            For the basics, Alan is a youth pastor at Mount Pisgah United Methodist Church. I asked him to be my mentor for the sole purpose of his field being the field I would like to pursue. He has successfully become a youth pastor in a fairly unconventional way by means of a math degree from Lee University and no seminary degree. When in ministry, a lot of people argue that you have to get a seminary degree and there’s no other way. From meeting with Alan, I realized that way is not the only way. It was encouraging to hear.

            Specifically, Alan’s answer to my last question about additional advice helped me to connect my interpersonal communications class with my future career. By encouraging me to collect experiences, mistakes and relationships along with my personal reflections to show what God is doing in my life is similar to how we are supposed to use self-reflection and interpersonal relationships to grow in our careers. These things go hand in hand. I found that it was very important when he talked about balancing home and work life. This is something that I could foresee as a potential hard point for me. It was helpful to see what he does to fix that potential imbalance. Lastly, one of my biggest fears is not being enough. It was super encouraging to see that my successful mentor also struggled with that and gave me a short line to remember and ease my acheivist mindset.

            In the end, I found a lot of pieces of wisdom that I can use in my future career. In the meantime, I will be brainstorming ideas on how to apply these things to my career.