Thank You Notes for a Mentor

Kathleen's friend has asked for a sample of thank you notes for her mentor. The poor child is exhausted from her studies and cannot fire one more brain cell. She has a plethora of thank you cards but nothing to write inside them as the school year grinds to an end and the Holy Grail of graduation seems attainable.

Nine months is a standard gestation
For bringing to life a creation,
And similarly,
It's how you mentored me
Calming rough seas with simplification.

You're the mentor who could interlace
Patience and wit with good grace
To help me get through
Those tough times when you
Might have fled for some easier place.

Honoring a mentor with thank you notes recognizes the bond of genuine affection that naturally arises between a fine teacher and his student. As parents nurture the body, the mentor nurtures the soul, which is, after all, the most enduring aspect of the person. The debt of gratitude that is recognized today enriches both the graduate and the good mentor.

Bread cast upon these waters returns satisfaction for mentors and a deeper humanity for the grateful student. Saying "thank you" improves us as human beings.

Is gratitude in short supply?
I've hoarded some here by and by
To now spend on you
With your help, I got through
And you are the main reason why.

Teachers, of course, seldom know
The consequences that will grow
From the gift of their time
Some day far down the line
As their fields bear the crops they now sow.

Suddenly, Kathleen remembers that some of her own thank you notes never arose above the state of good intentions and has gone off in search of stamps for these thank you poems. There is a wee bit of fence mending to do...

Thank you for caring for me
To become everything I can be
Though a tough row to hoe
You gave it a go
And your heart is as big as

.

As I struggled to keep up the pace
Your humor provided the grace
To keep me on track.
One day I'll give back
To a learner who's in the same place.