“Mentorship,” or, Very Tiresome Middle School Requirements

D’s school has this big program where the eighth graders are supposed to find a local mentor and spend a bunch of time with them, learning about a career that interests them. This is all very well and good for the kids who want some sort of everyday job, and whose parents are well-connected extraverts who don’t mind imposing on people. It’s even better for the kids who are willing to learn about their friends’ parents’ careers, because it’s got to be easier to ask the parents of other kids who need to find mentors too. But when your kid is shy, and picks a really cool profession whose members are both usually very busy even trying to find the time to practice it and quite often introverted themselves... well, it’s no fun. It’s downright stressful.

You see, D. doesn’t want to work in a cubicle, and he doesn’t want to, you know, be a research psychologist so he could spend time with one of my co-workers. He wants to be a novelist. A novelist! That’s like the coolest thing ever. I’m hoping that the teachers will approve our alternative plan of not having one mentor but instead seeing if D. can be allowed to make briefer connections with several novelists, and not necessarily in person (the best regarded novelist I know lives in California, for example).

His teacher had suggested that we also try to have him work with a local high school teacher who’s published one novel and a memoir, but the guy is “leaving the area.” I’ve also tried asking the main local writers’ group, but none of them has responded yet, beyond saying it’s okay for us to sit in on one of their meetings. Now I’m asking friends who are university faculty members for suggestions. *sigh*

Oh, and we have a deadline of a week from Wednesday, and if we do find someone local to work with, we have to have them fill out forms. I just want to minimize our intrusion into other people’s lives. I hate imposing on people. Bleh!