#i am an absolute sucker for this Shinji - Momo sketch

[el-yon]

Personal Bleach Positivity time for a good week.

So here I am, struggling with being a mentor/supervisor to late teens/early twenties while still figuring stuff for myself (not a real adult! i'm six kids in a trenchcoat!), and I am appreciating Bleach themes again -- this time, this is about mentorship.

I related so hard to the damaged Lieutenants ensemble in my school and workplace life, dealing with various awful situations, and now I find myself constantly wondering: "ok I am not an Aizen, but geez, how does one not screw this up?!". How do you build trust with someone who depends on you without overstepping? how do you know when to step in, when to step back?

And wow, I am loving Shinji and Momo more than ever

Because you know, Shinji's initial approach to Ichigo was bad - he was also hiding stuff from him, pushing for him to join them and manipulating Ichigo's doubts and struggles to get him to where Shinji (and the Vizards) wanted him to be. But that changes as he realizes Ichigo's not part of them, and Shinji's not going to make up for the damaged Captain-Lieutenant relationship with Aizen by training this new superpowerful kid.

Shinji gets a second chance with Momo and OH do they get it right! I have this feeling that were it not for Momo, Shinji might have not re-joined the Gotei, and were it not for Shinji, maybe Momo wouldn't have been able to fully get back either - Kubo did a wonderful job here. Aizen damaged Shinji, his Captain, and Momo, his Lieutenant: in a cascading and ripple effect that reached most of the Divisions, his betrail severed the very bonds that make the Gotei work, which is the emotional trust (not just hierarchy/discipline) between mentor/mentee, chief and subordinate. Aizen never let himself be mentored (by anyone, I'm assuming), and never mentored. Shinji meets Momo in the worst of the circunstances and he sees the damage in her that mirrors his own, and he chooses to re-builds that bond that has been severed.

We don't know how long it took, but Shinji read Momo, her hardworking self, her talent, her kind and helpful nature, and figured out how to bring the best in her - he was finally mentoring someone. On the other side there is Momo, displaying one of the most phenomenal example of strenght of heart in all worlds, who found it in herself the will to get back on her feet, back to work, and most of all, to trust again, let herself be mentored, and would you look at how amazing it is when it is done right.

Same goes for the healing and rebuilding processes of Rose and Izuru, Kensei and Shuuhei (even though Kensei takes a cof cof different approach), other cases such as Byakuya and Renji, or Yoruichi and Soi Fon, and even Rukia -- who was stripped of the mentee position from Kaien, pushed into a mentor position with Ichigo. But Ichigo is not her subordinate, and she re-teaches herself how to be a supportive friend to both him and Orihime (Rukia stepping up to train her is very important to me so it goes here).

Mentorship is a relationship, is a bond, and even if it has a time frame, it requires equal levels of respect, empathy, dedication, ethic, and trust from both sides -- and I'm talking from the toxic-filled environment of Academia but this goes for all mentor/mentees bondings out there.