I spent the first 31 years of my life in Romania where schools are intense and sixth grade geometry problems are worthy of the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. While the education I received was very good and I still remember my teachers I cannot remember having a mentor. Now I know that even without a formal mentor there were many people, events, books, music and movies that influenced my life like true mentors.
Music was my first mentor.
In Romania, during my childhood, the music stores were well stocked with Romanian classics, modern and folkloric music, and the classic music by the giant composers Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and many more. The modern music of the West was conspicuously missing from the front shelves because it was sold through the back doors to people other than people like me. So I bought the discs that were on the shelves.
The great classics!
I could only afford to buy one vinyl record at a time and by the time I would get another one I would have the first one memorized.
I don’t know if the tumultuous history of Romania or the harsh history of some neighboring countries had an influence on me but my favorite composer was and is Beethoven. The drama in his music resonated deeply with me and his music may have been my childhood first mentor. I learned from him that beauty is in everything. I learned discipline from the well organized concertos and symphonies. I learned how to hear the stories in his music. Then the music connected me with math. I would listen to music while doing my homework and it felt that the problems were much easier. I started to love math homework and I still do.
I have been listening to the great classics and thought this was the best music until one day my friend shared some of her discs with me. All western modern music. The first album was Tatoo You by none other than the Rolling Stones. Wow! I did not speak english and did not understand the words but I memorized the music and the lyrics. All the albums in her collection were not like mine, you see those were on the back shelves at the store where only certain people had access. My point, you may ask, is that there is always more that we can see or find. Sometimes those things comes to us but sometimes we need to reach out and find them.
All of my mentors, people, music or nature, have come to me and left unforgettable marks on my life. Others were out there for me to reach out. I learned that when need strikes it is great to remember to reach out to my mentors.
For Margaret.
The Full Person 