As a mentor, your primary focus is getting to know the wonderful young person for whom you have created a space in your heart. Your attention is in the present moment. As your relationship progresses, most likely the farthest thing from your mind is the
thought of saying goodbye. You may even decide you will mentor this young person until his/her high school graduation! We hope that you can, and there are certainly Seedling relationships where this happens. However, more often than not, the reality is that mentoring ends at different times, for all sorts of reasons.
The most common reason is life happens. You find out it is no longer possible for you to leave the office to mentor, or your mentee’s poor school attendance makes it difficult to continue. Sometimes the mentor or mentee realizes that it just isn’t what they imagined, and the relationship is cut short due to dissatisfaction. Sometimes without warning, your mentee is withdrawn from school and has moved away. Even though these things happen, being able to say goodbye, or having closure, is an important stage in the relationship and cannot be skipped over. The children that we serve have already experienced painful goodbyes . Mentors must do everything we can to not be another unexplained farewell. How your relationship ends can color the way your mentee thinks about the entire mentoring experience.