As many of you know I mentor a young boy through the Voices for Children foundation in San Diego. I am a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and have been “assigned” to a young boy since August of last year.
I had the most humbling experience with him yesterday and I had to share. I picked him up to go to dinner and get a new Lego set (per his request) he had finished school with good grades and was a small reward for that.
He hopped in my car and the first thing he said to me was “Niki if you had three wishes what would they be” – a little shocked cause he isn’t that talkative – I began to answer. I started with to be able to fly, travel to every country in the world and unlimited amounts of money for myself, family and friends.
I then asked him what his 3 wishes would be. He paused briefly and said “a passport for my dad to come back to the US, my family to be back together and I would let the genie go free – I would hate to be stuck in that lamp”.
I sat their speechless. Humbled as I thought of my three wishes and how much they differed in substance to his three wishes. As tears rolled down my cheek – I just said those are amazing wishes and anything can happen.
I think the biggest lesson in this experience is that when you volunteer or make the decision to mentor a child – you in fact may learn and benefit from the experience just as much as they do.
