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This is a sponsored post as part of the Let your Natural Beauty Shine Through with Zeno (www.myzeno.com) & Her Campus program.

For the past two years I’ve been an editorial assistant at Teen Voices and during part of that time I was also a mentor in their journalism-mentoring program. I was “assigned” a few teen girls and my role was to help them learn, master, and love the process of writing an in-depth article while also being that ‘big sis’ who would be there for them to talk about anything ranging from the boys at school to the family issues at home. It isn’t a big time commitment but it is a lot of work. It requires patience, good management skills, and you definitely have to love teen girl issues—or at least be able to relate to them!

But this past semester I couldn’t be a mentor, unfortunately, because of conflicts in my schedule. I would, however, see the girls every few weeks for a few minutes since I still volunteered once a week in the Teen Voices office. Because of the limited time that I was in the office, I couldn’t really catch up with them on a regular basis and help them out as they were wrapping up their sophomore, junior and senior years of high school. What’s even more upsetting is that because I’m graduating I’ll be moving back home. So unless I come back to the town I went to college in, I won’t get the chance to see them anytime soon.

With that being said, I decided to have a “mentee reunion” on a Friday. I asked the girls to save a few hours of their Friday night for girl time with me. I told them I would meet them at Teen Voices, pick them up after their workshop session, and bring them to my apartment. They loved this idea and we were all excited to hangout. We watched (or rather talked through) Love Actually, baked cupcakes, ordered pizza, ate half-baked Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, and painted our nails like Vanessa Hudgens’. At the end of the night, I let them choose two nail polishes from my stash and then walked them to the train station so they could get back home.

I walked back home and thought, “Man, I’m going to miss those girls!” As much as I was their mentor to help them the semester before, they’ve definitely helped me—whether they know it or not. Their smiles, laughter, and their willingness to open up to me makes me 1) happy that I’m no longer a high school student and 2) happy that I was able to form a trusting relationship with them.

It’s important to give back and to pay it forward. Whether I was a mentor for two semesters or five years, it’s good to show the girls that you’re not just their mentor, you’re also their friend, confider, and you really do honestly care about them and that you’ll forever be a phone call away.     

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Michelle Golden is a senior Writing, Literature and Publishing major at Emerson College working towards her Bachelor of Fine Arts. A transfer from Ithaca College in upstate New York, Michelle moved to the center of the Theatre District right outside of the Boston Common at the beginning of her sophomore year. Michelle is the relationships editor for em magazine, Emerson’s only campus lifestyle publication and previously one of the features writers. She has interned at OK! Magazine and Us Weekly in New York in the beauty department. She is currently interning half the week at Her Campus and the other half at Cosmopolitan. Michelle has also been actively involved with Teen Voices magazine located in Boston, Massachusetts working with teen girls all over the world and Music Unites, a non-profit based in New York City that raises awareness and funding for music programs in inner-city schools. Email her at michellegolden@hercampus.com.