Shining My Star on Others: EFAC Alumna Reflection on Mentoring

By Doreen Njue

EFAC Alumna, class of 2021

Originally published in EFAC’s Wezesha Magazine, Special Issue 2024

The call to contribute to EFAC’s Wezesha 2024 magazine frankly came at a time when I was a little bit in the middle of life. Juggling everything and wanting to show up for each at a hundred percent proved to be a puzzle I couldn’t figure out. The supposed roaring twenties were barely living up to the idea I built up in my mind. If anything, it was a tiny purr that I had to seriously focus to even recognize. So, there couldn’t have been a more inopportune to think I could conjure up some great optimistic words.

Obviously, I said yes; otherwise, this would be a completely different article. But key for me, in that moment, even when I felt I could not possibly take one more thing on, is that I did not hesitate. I said yes and at the back of my mind, I knew I would make time.

That’s all it really is—making time. Or at least that is one of the lessons I have garnered along the way. The community doesn’t happen to you, you create it because you are part of it. You sustain an ecosystem by contributing to it, and in return, it nourishes you. For me, it is as simple a gesture as writing an article. But who knows the ripple effect? It could mean someone in the EFAC office has one less call to make to ask for a contributor, it could mean one of my peers will read this and feel inspired to sign up as a mentor, it even could be a full circle moment of me reading back these words as I write and having a genuinely gratifying moment of reflection (by the way, that is exactly what is happening right now).

I cannot trace the exact moment I figured out that I had a love for mentorship. However, from a young age, all the way into my teenage years, I knew I did not know a lot of things. I did not know what high school to pick during selection, I did not know if I got in how we would manage the school fees, and I did not know how life would look if that was not a possibility—but it was, thanks to EFAC. Then a new series of not knowing began. I did not know how I would fit in with all the other students from all over the country. I did not know if I was picking the right subjects. I did not know if it was normal to smile all day because a boy sent you a shout-out as a footnote on someone else’s letter. You get the drift. All I knew at any one point, was I needed to focus on school and get good grades. The funny thing about life is that a good number of times, you genuinely do not know. But as a kid, I thought the adults had it figured out, and boy did I want the years to fly by so I could be one (in case it is not clear, I definitely do not hold those sentiments anymore as an adult).

When I became a peer mentor, I was in campus at Multimedia University. At any session, it was a beautiful tier of individuals in different stages of life—the high school students, sometimes a just-completed-form-four scholar, a campus peer mentor, and a working professional mentor. These sessions were and continue to be so much more about my learning than teaching. I am always happy to be the person a student bounces their thoughts off of—because to them, in that moment, at that stage, it seems like they don’t know—but all they need in order to go fully into the direction of their dreams, is the knowledge that someone they can look up to is in their corner. In return, they remind me of the optimism I once held, and ground me to the reality of dreams I sometimes seem to forget amidst the hustle of life.

This community ecosystem applies to all stages. In every new chapter of my life, I have needed a mentor. Someone who has gone down the road before so the ride is a little less bumpy for me. I have kept in touch and reached out to amazing mentors that the Wezesha Journey introduced me to because I haven’t been to a stage in life where I thought I had it figured out. Safe to say, I still have a lot of “I don’t know” moments to come.

Sometimes you need to phone a friend, other times you need to phone a mentor. That, for me, is why mentorship will always be an enthusiastic “yes”—because everybody needs somebody and I am that somebody to someone because someone else was somebody to me; an ecosystem.