Don't wait to reconnect
11:20, 14 November 2008
.. Posted in Personal.. Link
Over the years, we lose contact with unforgettable, amazing people who have left an important impression on our lives. We lose contact for a variety of reasons -- either of you leave a region, or leave a job, and the regular, natural contacts with each other go away. The person stays in your address book, and you come across that person's name sometimes and think, you know, I really should send him an email, or, I should call, or, I really should type her name into Google and see what she's up to.
Sometimes you do followup and reconnect with someone you really wanted to. But more often, you spend years meaning to try to reconnect, but you never do.
And sometimes when you try to reconnect, you find out that you are too late. That's happened to me twice -- most recently today.
This unforgettable person is Shayne Schneider, founder of Mentors Inc., a nonprofit organization that matched Washington DC public high school students with mentors. Shayne was one of the USA's leading experts in mentoring. When I was brought in by the National Mentoring Partnership and America Online back in 1999 to help them design standards for online mentoring programs and start a pilot program of their own, I was urgently warned that Shayne (pronounced "Sheh - nuh") was "old school" and "traditional", that she had deep skepticism about online mentoring, and that I needed to tread very gently. I didn't tread gently, and Shayne and I were kindred spirits in about 60 seconds, when she quickly realized that all of the standards for traditional mentoring that she worked so hard to promote were all standards I deeply believed in for online mentoring. We found ourselves on the same side of various arguments that ensued during the consultation, as we pushed for quality controls and youth-focused program design. She said things I was thinking before I could get them out of my mouth. For me, she was the best part of the experience, an absolute a pleasure to work with. I can still hear many of her comments in my head, particularly one about Charlton Heston that I won't repeat here...
But we lost touch when I left the Virtual Volunteering Project and moved to Germany. And today, I found out that Shayne died of leukemia in June 2005.
I hope you will use this story as an opportunity to get back in touch with unforgettable people in your life. The Internet makes it easier than ever to do that. And when you reconnect, let those amazing people know the positive impact they had on you, and tell them you would love to hear about what they are doing. Don't wait one more day to do so.
