It's Never Too Late To Say Thank You

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Yesterday I had the sweet experience of finding an email in my secondary inbox from a young woman I mentored a couple of years ago. We have never met and our interaction was pretty short, but sweet. She was just preparing to graduate from college at the time.

We were introduced through an organization where I volunteered to mentor young marketing and communications students. We exchanged emails from my coast to the Midwest. She asked about life, managing a career and how to manage work/life balance. I shared my thoughts with her on these topics and sent her every bit of positive energy I could.

The email I received yesterday was so dear. She was almost embarrassed to contact me after so long to thank me for my mentoring efforts and share how she was doing since graduation and into her career. She said she hoped I wouldn't think it was weird that she was contacting me.

Weird? No way. I thought it was fantastic. There is never a bad time to tell someone thank you for influencing your life for the good. Her note meant the world to me and you can bet I wrote her right back. It was interesting to connect again from her new perspective and the new places where I "live" at this point in my life. It gave me a moment to look back and see and share what I had further learned in the past couple of years. I also found myself wishing that I could be as wise as she now is at her age.

It also got me thinking about so many who mentored and inspired me in my youth. It's never too late to keep thanking them either. Whenever I have crossed paths with these good people I have taken a moment when possible to thank them for their influence on my life. I will be forever grateful. I should keep doing that and perhaps some letters are in order. These dear people won't always be with us. No one is ever averse to receiving a message of kindness and thanks in their lives.

So I thank this dear mentee for taking the time to write and say thank you and share how she is. It inspired me and helped me to see I have learned a few things over the years too and am doing okay.