Oh yes... My final line was meant to be... Of course the corporal had his revenge for a whole month or so...
That extra bit of info has convinced me entirely... One day when you have 5 minutes downtime, give THIS a scan... You will relate. It's also possibly the direction my career will take to replace 'machine operating grunt' in a food factory lol.
The kid OK'd the post before I clicked publish BTW - There were tangible tears from a so-called little hardman :)
Donuts... Well of course!
Mentoring is a very rewarding thing to do, in any situation and I'm not surprised it resonates with you. I mentor people professionally and from a life perspective also and have done for years. I get as much from it as do those I mentor.
Maybe it's time for a follow up post? How's things with that kid?
Ah! Sadly, he went back to live with his birth Mother a few months back. It's a story you will have heard before... As have I. Once he was in a different sphere of influence, most certainly not a positive one, I lost almost all power to have any positive influence.
I reach out from time to time without pressuring, I am of the mindset that once he realises that his trajectory is not going to take him towards the goals he shared with me, he will ask for help. I ((without judgement or chastisement about his choices in this period)) will be ready and ask him to go find the statements he wrote down about himself and we will begin a review...
I'm 49% pragmatist and 51% optimist... Hope abounds.
Giving is easy, we can't make someone receive it well though. It will play out and either way you will know you played your part as best you can.