On Mentorship
Entry posted by Philip in Relationships
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To the students that surpass us as teachers.
I’ve been training Paul for a while now at work, and today, I realized something profound.
He’s exceeded me in a few of the stations.
There are ten stations in total in the factory. I’m a jack-of-all-trades in all of them, mastering one—just one—that I’ve been doing for the past seven years. Since Paul started, less than three months ago, I’ve been training him on almost all the stations, and now, more than half of them? He’s surpassed me. His dedication, his hard work, his resilience—it’s all paid off.
And that struck me today.
He’s better than me.
But the feeling that came over me wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t envy.
It was happiness. Pride.
And that made me realize—I’ve done my job.
You see these moments in movies, right? When the student surpasses the teacher. Maybe they go head-to-head in some epic battle, and the teacher falls—slow motion, music swelling—and yet, there’s always that faint smile on the teacher’s face
And in some way, that’s me.
But I’m not falling. I’m standing.
Smiling.
Because I’ve helped unlock Paul’s potential. I’ve lifted him up, even if that means he’s now standing higher than I am.
And I feel at peace with that.
I’m proud of him—proud of myself, too. That my weird, crazy teaching techniques worked, that he learned so quickly, that he trusted me enough to guide him. That matters.
So now, he’s ahead of me, walking forward, on his own path. And I’m behind him, still smiling, watching him take those steps, knowing I helped carve out that road for him.
I clap the dust off my hands, pat myself on the back for a job well done, and sit down—maybe in a rocking chair, maybe just in my head—and I think to myself:
My friend,
my job here is done.
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