Speaking with my mentor

I had my first phone call with my assigned mentor for my health management class and I did not know what to expect. This was one of the first mandatory calls I had to make in the last year that was not for an interview or for a job I was working at. It felt pretty good to not have to worry about answering interview questions, or acting as if I was the best candidate for the role, but instead I got to ask the questions and get to know who he was. My mentor is currently the Lean Management systems program manager for the VA Portland Health Care Systems in Oregon. Being a business major at UNH, lean management is something that I had studied in many of my classes but in my four years at college it was the first time I got to speak to someone who actually deals with this in their everyday lives.Being our first ever call and contact with each we spent most the call learning about who each other was and what lead them to where they are now. My mentors journey to his position now is pretty amazing and very motivating. From high school he immediately joined the Army in 1995 and was a Non-commissioned officer in charge, and a clinical engineer. He was in the Army until 2003 when he then worked as a Biomedical Equipment support specialist at Oregon Health & Sciences University. He then entered his current place of work but as a Biomedical Equipment support specialist at the VA. At the same time he enrolled at Portland State University and received his BA in English. and then got promoted to Supervisor at the VA. He was a point in his life where he was content with his work but knew he wanted something more fulfilling. He was able to go into work and not hate it but he wanted to be excited to go to work He knew that if he got a higher education he would be able to move to the position that would allow him to do this. He enrolled in Army-Baylor University and after a year received his MBA, and MHA. This allowed him to rise to his current position as  Lean Management systems program manager where he gets to make a difference at his work and has the sense of fulfillment he had been searching for.
His road to get to where he is at now, is inspiring to me showing that its never to late to go to school. I am at a point in my life where I have a position in a hospital which I enjoy, but one day I would like to get mys masters to further myself. This just shows me that as long as you are passionate about actually going back its not as impossible as it may seem.