Friday, April 30, 2010

Speaking of mentoring...

A former co-worker of mine called out of a the blue at 12AM. She claimed the reason she called was because she wanted to know if I would be facebook friends with her. I told her sure, but that you don't generally ask permission to friend request someone.

She then went from that topic to asking if I think it's okay for girls to call back guys. (Random...)

She then asked if I was still gay. (More random) She thought that since I'm around so many girls that I must have turned straight by now. Her cultural background traditionally doesn't quite understand (read as: approve of) homosexuality. But this is a common trend in her life. She often doesn't understand her own desires or behaviors, let alone others'. As introspective as she thinks she is, she generally comes up from the depths of her mind empty handed.

She then said that she knew what she was doing about medical school, but wasn't ready to tell me. She said this without me asking about medical school. I told her she didn't have to tell me, but that she obviously wanted to since she brought it up on her own. Evidently she's planning on going to Cuba and was very afraid of my reaction. I don't even know why she would care. I barely ever speak to her and haven't seen her in real life since working with her.

The conversation only got stranger from this point. In fact it was so strange that I don't think I can even summarize. It basically came down to me calling her out on not living in reality. She gets so caught up in the future, that she's not seeing the world around. I went a little Buddha on her ass. All she thinks about is the "dream life" that she wants. Now I'm all about having goals and such, but you can't become that blinded by them. I truly believe that she's going to be miserable going through this process and that the outcome isn't going to be what she suspects it to be.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm all that successful at Buddhism. But then I see people like this, and I realized how far along I really am. I try to help her "see the light" but it's difficult. How bodhicitta of me.

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