Mentor Madness

Finding a mentor for my senior project has certainly been quite the journey. I spent two weeks constantly e-mailing language professors requests for becoming my mentor (mainly e-mailing those who teach on an elementary level since I feel like they would know the important factors that come into play when learning a language). Because of my change of topic, I was forced to start my senior project fresh. I needed to start from the very beginning of the whole senior project process and that was finding a mentor that could take me under their wing. Within the first three days of my little request rampage for a mentor, I received a couple of no's but I didn't let those rejections crush my spirit nor tenacity. I believed that I was bound to find a mentor soon considering the fact that I was reaching out to nearly 10 people at the time.

Five days pass; some professors rejected me once again and some didn't even bother to e-mail me back! I felt my heart break a little at he thought of professors ignoring my e-mails (even though it might be best that I didn't mentor with them. Their personalities were probably terrible if they didn't have the common courtesy to at least respond!).However, I am persistent.

Six days: No luck. I e-mail more.

Nine: Again, a sea of no's. I'm nearly reaching the point of desperate. Blog #6 revolves around our mentor and the due date for that assignment was slowing creeping in. Claire Dix messages me on Facebook later that night and we both freak out about how neither of us are even close to finding a mentor. We're girls so of course we worry together about our problems. As we continue to complain about the struggles of finding a mentor, Claire becomes my saving grace and gives me details on Lara McConaughey's mentor for her senior project that revolved around Linguistics. The professor Claire referred to me, Karen Roussikoff, taught a whole class on Language Acquisition so I thought she would be a very suitable mentor for my project. I e-mail the professor that night.

Ten: No response throughout the day. Oh no.

Eleven: ... Blog #6 was due the next day.

Twelve: Blog #6 was due. Claire and I were still mentor-less, thus we rant about our sorrows again over Facebook Message and try to decide on what to do with our little dilemma. However, just as we were complain about our struggles, I received an e-mail from Dr. Roussikoff that said she would be happy to become my mentor! What great timing; just before blog #6. I was able to write about my mentor in time for the due date of the sixth blog assignment and I met with Dr. Roussikoff the next week.

Honestly, I felt so relieved and blessed to officially have a mentor hours before the assignment was due. It's crazy how life works out and I just happen to be one of the lucky ones. Now that one nightmare is over, it's time to over come the rest. Everyone wish me luck.

A-dog out.

Here is a funny comic about first language acquisition in babies, a topic that Doctor Roussikoff will go into detail with me within my mentorship.