Abby Dettelbach: This Week With Artisans!

For the past four weeks, I have had the pleasure of mentoring a man named Don at Artisans. While our first encounter did not go as smoothly as some of my other peers and their mentees did, we have slowly been forming a relationship that I am sure will have a great impact on my life.
During our first meeting, I was told that Don took a while to warm up to people and that was truly the case. I knew about his love for sports so I talked about the different baseball and football games that had occurred in the past week and I could tell he was interested but was not sure about whether or not he wanted to talk to me yet. In the end, I left that first meeting feeling rather defeated and worried about whether or not I would ever feel that connection with my mentee that everyone talks about.
The next week when we walked into Artisans I was nervous that it would be the same situation again. Don did a complete 180 though and seemed like a new man! We discussed in a large group some outings that we would like to do together and he even participated by saying yes or no to things. When we discussed doing outings such as going to a Women’s basketball game at GU he seemed really excited as well as things like bowling. Some other mentees started to dance later and Don decided that he wanted to join them. He asked for country music to be played and he continued to dance for at least 30 minutes straight no matter what music was playing. It was really nice to see the joy on his face when he was dancing and to be able to share that moment with him.
This past Monday all of Artisans and Setons had the opportunity to go to Green Bluff. Don and I rode the bus together and he laughed at some of my joke and expressed how excited he was to try some pumpkin donuts as well as picking out a pumpkin! When we got there, we learned that his roommate Terry would be joining us for the day and the three of us quickly set off to go explore Green Bluff. While there they worked together to pick matching pumpkins for the three of us and we went on a ride around the farm. After the ride, we went through a corn maze where we found X and got a prize afterwards. Both Terry, Don and I enjoyed our time at Green Bluff and were excited to take our matching pumpkins home.

All in all, I could not be more excited to continue my time with Don and see the different things I will be able to experience with him this year. I have already learned so many things from interacting with him and I am excited that the two of us will continue to be given the opportunity to grow together.

Abby Dettelbach
Setons 2017-18

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