Introduction

My definition of mentorship is not restricted to a mentor being an experienced individual in a

particular field who provides guidance and nurtures the professional development of another in
that field. In my opinion, a mentor can quite simply be someone who influences your life in a
positive way.
And today, I’ll be briefly discussing three extremely important mentors that have demonstrated
their mentorship skills to me by being positive influences in my life for as long as I can
remember, starting with:

My older sister
There are times when I can feel that my relationship with my sister is similar to a
mentor/mentee relationship, where she’s my mentor and I’m the mentee. My sister has been a
huge role model in my life. I always find myself learning something new from her, and I am
often inspired and motivated by her.
I truly admire how hard my sister works to not only accomplish her goals, but also to ensure
that those around her are progressively achieving their goals as well, by somehow always
managing to make time for our family including me.
Whenever I approach my sister for help, I find that she always goes above and beyond what I
ask from her to make sure that I have access to all the resources that will help me with
whatever I require her assistance with. Especially in terms of academics, my sister has
significantly contributed to my growth as a high-achieving student.
I don’t think I would be as proficient as I am when it comes to my academic performance if it
weren’t for my sister’s persistence in always encouraging me to work hard and study and also
willingly participating in my projects when I was younger to demonstrate and set good
examples for me. However, our dynamics is not always mentor/mentee.
There are times when my sister seeks my help with some of her projects related to art and
creative writing, but because those times are not very frequent, I feel that I am mainly the
person who serves the role of the mentee while she fulfills the role of the mentor.

Cousin
Apart from my sister, another mentor who I believe greatly influences my life in a positive way
is my cousin. My cousin and I are of the same age, so we always consider ourselves as more like
best friends than cousins, so I don’t think it would be accurate to say that I have a
mentor/mentee relationship with my cousin like I do with my sister.
I think my cousin and I have more of a mentor/mentor relationship, where we both seek each
other’s advice and guidance in various aspects of our lives. We’re both quite supportive and
protective of each other.
There are many times where I personally find myself motivated by her ambitious and cheerful
nature, while she is frequently inspired by my qualities of perseverance and dependability. I feel
that my cousin and I both uphold a very influential value in each other’s lives, where we’re
constantly uplifting and encouraging each other to be better versions of ourselves.

Mother
Lastly, the most important and ideal mentor in my life who I believe will always remain my
mentor, no matter what, is my mother. My mom not only influences my life in a positive way,
but I believe she has basically shaped my life and morphed me into the person that I am today.
If I were to describe our mother-daughter relationship in terms of mentorship, I would say that
rather than a mentor/mentee relationship, we surprisingly have a mentor/mentor relationship,
where we’re both constantly providing each other endless support, my mom even more so than
I do at times.
I think the first person I always find myself going to whenever I experience any sort of
inconvenience is my mom. I tend to gravitate towards her whenever I need advice or guidance
or would just like to destress by speaking about my struggles with the hope of finding some
comfort after.
And it really does not matter whether my mom is an experienced professional in whatever I
require her help with; I find that she always has some sort of solution to my problems, and that
solution is not always straight-forward and direct. My mom doesn’t simply just solve my
problems for me; I think she often just provides me with moral support and her insight, her
intake on what I may be struggling with. She also tries to provide me with resources that are
available to me that I sometime overlook and hence am not able to consider until my mom
specifically points them out to me.
And I find that that alone, that moral support and insight and resources, is always more than
enough solace for me to eventually resolve my problems by myself. And because of this, I feel
that out of the 3 mentors that I have just mentioned, my mom likely possesses the most typical
mentor-like characteristics, which include being a good listener, providing mentees with helpful
suggestions that will aid their growth, and most of all, sharing experiences that will teach the
mentees valuable lessons. I believe my mom has all these characteristics and they have always
been incredibly useful to me.
Closing
So to summarize, the 3 important mentors in my life include my sister, cousin, and mom. None
of these people are given some official label as my mentors, but they all significantly influence
my life in a positive way by providing me with endless support and care as well as
demonstrating excellent mentorship skills such as active listening, open communication,
resilience, and optimism, all of which motivate me to improve and be a better version of myself
in both my personal and professional life.