Mentor Spotlight: Osdale Good
In December of 2019, Osdale and *Audrey were matched, just a month or two before Covid threw a wrench in things. “It definitely made things challenging,” Osdale says. “Diving deeper into the relationship was hard at that time, especially since we didn’t have any time to grow our relationship before Covid happened.” They were able to meet in person occasionally, but most of their relationship was over Zoom.
After about a year of being matched, Osdale moved to Washington. “I didn't feel like it was fair to her to be matched when we couldn’t meet in person, so we closed the match. I was gone for a year, then when I moved back to Portland, I called Cia and asked if I could start seeing Audrey again.”
“We kind of had to start over in our relationship at that point. Chemistry wise, there were roots there, but the roots were not very deep since they never had much time to grow. And she grew up a little bit. She is very quiet and needs a lot of prompting in conversation, but over the last few years she has definitely gotten more confident to talk.”
Life often does not go as planned, as Osdale and Audrey experienced.
“Because of the time that we were matched, it feels like we still don’t know each other as well as I wished,” Osdale says. “But I think I just have to accept where we are at and take it for what it is. I am thankful for what we have, and I definitely see the benefit that the time we have had in person together has had on her.”
When people think of mentoring, they often think of it as a way to give children opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise get. While that is very true, mentoring a child can also get the mentor out of their comfort zone and open them up to things they wouldn’t have done otherwise, which Osdale has experienced in their relationship.
“She’s more artistic than I am. I don’t tend to seek out art projects for fun. But we went to do some painting together, and it was actually so much fun for me! It was very freeing for me to just be able to create. I didn’t realize that I had that in me to just create on my own without a lot of guidance. Audrey really loved it, and it was great to do that together. We also recently went indoor skydiving together, which was another thing Audrey suggested.”
*special thanks to Venvino Art Studios for allowing us to photograph this art session
Despite the obstacles that have arisen, Osdale and Audrey have continued to grow their relationship. “I’m looking forward to continuing to grow a deeper relationship with her,” Osdale says, “to a point where she can open up to me more. That would be a wonderful gift from God to me. And if that means doing stuff with her that is out of my comfort zone, like art, I am happy to do that. I am also excited to see how she continues to grow her confidence and grow in the way she sees the world. Even the skydiving that we did, it seems like that is something that would be outside of her comfort zone. But she wanted to do it again and thought it was really fun, so that’s cool to see.”
