Day 3: Find a Mentor

...and I thought shining my shoes was something I didn't enjoy.

Here's the thing: I don't make friends easily. And when I do, they are usually women. There just aren't many guys that I enjoy being around. I'm not a rabid sports fan. I don't drink, cuss, or smoke. I'm married with 5 kids. I don't enjoy talking about cars, or construction projects, or other "manly" type activites. The things I do enjoy (games, dressing well, religion, self-depreciating humor, making snarky comments about life in general, etc.) has, in the past, found me interacting with someone who is too focused on that one thing - usually to the detriment of actually being a person anyone would want to be around.

Being as I don't really care about my job to find a mentor there (I'm actually a part of my company's official "Mentoring Program" where I am the actual mentor...nothing like forced mentoring...ugg) and I'm not in school anymore for an academic mentor (something I probably should have sought out back in the day), I guess this really falls into the realm of finding a guy with whom I can consciously develop a friendship.

The best place for me to start looking for that is at church. My perception, perhaps mistakenly, is that everyone else is much busier than I am. For example, we have a lot of medical professionals/students at my church. In fact, one of the guys that first jumped to mind is doing his residency at one of the busiest hospitals here in town. He's a great guy, has a young family (2 kids I believe), spiritually minded, enjoys playing games when he has the time (based on an earlier conversation we had), and is likely insanely busy.

So, what am I to do? Well, just a few minutes ago, I shot Jason (the fellow in question) an email asking if he has the time to get together for lunch every once in awhile (we work within a fairly close distance to each other). I have no idea if he will be able to do this (and I know my finances for eating out is quite limited), but at least it is a step in the right direction.