Animal Cell 101

You never know what you may learn when you wake up every day. Tuesdays are my dedicated nights with my little sister that I mentor. We have been matched for just over a year and I feel that I have gotten so much from the program, more than I ever imagined.

The first year was filled with many challenges, but now at the end of this year I feel like I have established a wonderful relationship with someone that I hope will remain in my life for a long time. I thought by becoming a mentor, I would be changing someone's life. I really never realized how much it would teach me.

To be a mentor is to help teach someone to be a better person, to support them, to guide them and to be there for them no matter what. At first I was so concerned that we were having fun each week, but someone gave me some good advice along the way...they reminded me that when the program is over you want your match to have learned some lessons. The fun would be over when the program was over, but the lessons would remain forever.

So tonight, I helped my little sis make an animal cell for her science class. When she first asked I thought to myself, what is an animal cell and how was I going to help her make one. So we went to Michaels, found some materials and headed where else but to good old Dad's. Who else could help with this science project, but my Dad. He was so happy to help and I think he may have actually enjoyed it. It reminded me of how lucky I was to have him in my life. Throughout the years, he always was there to help with projects and would have so much patience explaining details that I didn't understand (especially in math and science). Here is was after all these years, and he was helping explain again. Amazingly after 2 hours of carving out the nucleous, painting the cell membrane, glue gunning the mitochondria and poking in the ribosomes we completed the Animal Cell. What a masterpiece and what a fun night. Who would have known animal cells could be so much fun.