This is my first year in the program and I am here to tell you how Mentoring 2 Manhood has transformed me in my journey from being a boy to a man. Before I came to M2M I had challenges that kept me from living up to my potential. I seemed to always be in trouble, was never going to class, and when I did go to class I would do nothing but be a class disruption. In my 10th grade year I went to school for 9 months and did not produce anything. I didn’t pass a single class, and I had to repeat the 10th grade. When I came to M2M I began to turn the corner due to the 9 A.M. morning tutoring session, and thanks to the tutors that helped me with classes I experienced great improvements academically.
What M2M brought into my life were men who cared not only about themselves, but someone elses son.
The mentors always bring a special guest for us mentees that talk around the subjects of life, money, and being an African-American male. The special guest that I really liked the most was a preacher who talked to us about life skills. He viewed life in the form of an acronym and that was:
L(Listening)
I(Integrity)
F(Friends)
E(Endurance).
What got to me most was when he talked about endurance, that when life hits you hard, you have to have the endurance of mind to keep going even when you gave it all you have it does not seem to be working out, you will find that you don’t know what you have unless you keep trying. For example: my situation last week at school, I needed a 76% to pass my Integrated Math class for the quarter and I had a 44%. I thought it was over I had failed once again. But taking on the mindset not to quit, I went back to class and asked my teacher what can I do to make it up? He gave me 16 make up work assignments plus a project to do, and I finish it all in one day. I finish and got a 76% in two days and it is still going up. If I didn’t receive those life skills that mentoring to manhood provides for young men like me, I would have taken that 44% and called it a day. This is just one of the many ways that how Mentoring 2 Manhood is changing me from a boy into young man who respects the life and potential God has given me. Thank you for your time and attention.
