Mentor Interview

The first day of Spanish class I was intimidated and nervous. I did not know a word of Spanish other than ôsiö and ôno,ö and I found myself lost in a group of classmates who appeared to know each other from former classes. As a foreigner, I also felt estranged from the predominantly American class. The class was very noisy on the first day, as old classmates regaled themselves with news from the summer break and poked fun at each other. They were quite unruly when a good-looking, tan man in his early thirties in a dress shirt and Burberry slacks walked into the room. I focused only on this well-groomed, good-looking man to avoid my discomfort with my classmates. He proceeded to walk to the chalkboard, pick up a piece of chalk, and wrote the following on the chalkboard, ôJohn ôReffö Reffner.ö He then kept his back to us as he continued to write, ôSchool is not out!ö On the period of the exclamation point, he dotted the punctuation

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h without thinking about it.ö ôOf course,ö he added, ôfor it to be real love your partner must be of a mind to do likewise if making the sandwich for you. ItÆs a two-way street. Nothing one-way about it at all in all its phases and moodsö (Reffner, 2005, p. 1). The next question I had for Mr. Reffner was, ôWhen you believe you are right and others say you are wrong, what does one do?ö ôReffÆsö answer surprised me because it not only revealed something he felt about me I had never known but also he revealed something about himself I had never known. He told me, ôYou know, the one thing I always worried about you was the fact that you are so sensitive to your environment. I always hoped you wouldnÆt let your environment influence you too much. Society makes values and judgments of individuals but it is individuals who must develop their own set of core values to guide them in life. I knew yours were an asset but was afraid you might not have the courage to overcome the opinions of those around you in becoming yourselfö (Reffner, 2005, p. 3). I agreed he was right and he further said, ôIÆm gay. I know what IÆm talking about. No matter what people think, being true to your real self is the only path to happiness,ö (Reffner,
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Approximate Word count = 1622
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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