Running head: LETTER TO MY MENTEE 1

LETTER TO MY MENTEE IN ORDER TO MAKE HIM SUCCESSFUL AND HAPPY

Naomie Bilonda
English 101
Professor Camp
April 18, 2017
Minnesota State States University
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Abstract
In my English 101 class, students were assigned to write a letter to someone who will come

to Minnesota State University next semester as his or her mentor. Therefore, I have decided to

write this letter to my little brother who will come in August for college. In this letter, I proposed

three main advices that my mentee should follow in order for him be happy and successful. First,

I want my mentee to learn how to play the guitar. I will support this statement with examples from

my personal experience and from some research. Second, I believe that my mentee should find

some friends in order to be happy. In this case, I will support my opinion with two sources. Third,

I want my brother to be organized in order to be successful in college.

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Letter to my mentee in order to make him happy and successful in College

Dear Osee,

I was so excited to hear about your arrival in Minnesota State University for next semester.

In fact, I know how you may feel right now. As you know, it has been almost 7 months that I left

the country to continue my studies here in the United States. It wasn’t my first time in the U.S

and it will not be your first time either. In 2015, we both came in the U.S with our parents for

tourism purposes. But this time, it’s not for tourism that you are coming but you are coming for

educational purposes. As dad always says university is the beginning of life. I agree with him. In

fact, everything that you will decide to do from the moment you start university will have a

serious impact on your future. You will have to make good decisions from the beginning of your

journey. In my English composition class, I was assigned to write a letter to a mentee giving

advices for college life. Therefore, I have chosen to write this letter to you explaining academic

and social facts in order to be happy and successful in college.

In order to be happy and successful, you will have to learn how to play a musical

instrument. According to my own experience, I have noticed some changes in my academic and

social life after I started to play the guitar. As you know, I am not a “people-person”. On the other

hand, I am introverted and closed-minded. Before coming to Mankato, I went to Madison

Wisconsin to improve my English. In fact, when dad and mom went back to Kinshasa, I felt lonely.

Nevertheless, I found some friends there and integrated into their community. Just when I was

starting to get used to living there, dad told me that I needed to move to Minnesota for college. I

wasn’t really thrilled with the idea and was so frustrated. In fact, I was so upset with the fact that

I had to restart the process of making friends that I ended up locked in my room every day. I was

constantly unhappy and it was affecting my grades. Thanks to music, I became happier and more
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successful. Since I’ve started to learn the guitar, my loneliness has been overcome and my grades

started to go up.

This example from my personal experience supports my argument in the way that it is a

testimony that proves what music did to me. I became a happier person and a better student than

before. I feel like if I didn’t start to play the guitar, thinks would have been very different. Maybe

I would have reach depression if I didn’t buy my guitar. I feel a strong connection with my guitar,

it feels like we communicate. This is why I encourage you to start to learn how to play a musical

instrument, you won’t regret it.

Miendlarzewska and Trost (2013) described the benefits of music on the human brain.

They conducted a study on children in their sensitive age. They stated, “children who undergo

musical training have better verbal memory, second language pronunciation accuracy, reading

ability and executive functions” (p. 1). In other words when the human brain is still developing,

music brings about benefits to the neuroplasticity of the brain. Also, they acknowledge the impact

of music on IQ and academic success in young adults’ brains. They also state that motivation and

rewards are important in the process of gaining benefits from music. In conclusion,

Miendlarzewska and Trost declared that music has an impact on individuals that are in their

development phase. Therefore, it is benefic for their brain activity.

This article supports my claim in the way that you will gain a lot of benefits from ;earning

how to play a musical instrument. According to the article, the benefits of music to human age

decreases as age increases. See, you are just 17 and you’re not done growing up. Therefore, I

believe that it would be better for you to start now that your brain is still fresh and developing.

The second thing that I would like you to do in order to be successful is to have friends. In

other words, I would like you to fully enjoy your social life, make friends on campus, participate
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to social activities… The reasons why I want you to make friends is that I neglected this aspect

when I started college. I was so determined to study that I forgot that humans sometimes need to

love and being loved. Consequently, I became very sad and unsociable. As your big sister, I do

not want the same thing to happen to you.

Flynn and Macleod (2015) conducted a study based on the correlation between happiness

and some life domains on one hundred and ninety-two students of an undergraduate university.

The life domains that were studied were: financial security, academic success, social relations,

familial support, self-image and living environment. They made this research because other

research showed that happiness had a positive impact on the society. Furthermore, the method that

they used to conduct this study is a survey including a certain age category. Consequently, the

results showed that academic success and self-image had the greater impact on students

‘happiness.

In the area of social life, Flynn and Macleod were inspired by research made by Demir

and Weitekamp (2007). Their studied focused on the relationship between happiness and social

life. In other words, they wanted to know whether friendship was associated with happiness while

directing personality. Their studied were made on 423 young adults in which 300 women. The

results of their studies showed that friendship had an impact on happiness while controlling

personality and gender.

These findings support the idea that you should have friends in order to be happy. As

Demir and Weitekamp declared, friendship is related to happiness. This means that you will be

happier if you find good friends. One thing that really bothers me with you is that you have a lot

of friends but they aren’t good ones. Since friendship also affects individuals’ personality, you will

have to find friends that will be good influencers of your personality. I do not want you to be
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friends with people who encourage you to do bad things. Conversely, I want you to be happy with

friends that will encourage you to follow your dreams and to work hard. That’s how you are going

to be happy.

The last thing that I would like you to do in order to be happy and successful is to be

organized. What I mean by “being organized” is that I want you to make schedules and to plan

everything. There is an expression that dad always likes to say: ‘Fail to plan is planning to fail”. I

really like this quote because it is accurate. For example, dad plans everything and he is successful

in everything that he plans.

According to my own experience, planning was something to which I was indifferent. Every

day I would wake up and wait for things to happen. When I started college, I would wake up and

wait but things started to get hard. I was overwhelmed at a certain period of my life. I would just

wake up and wait and sometimes forget what I needed to do. Things would slowly accumulate

until they overflow. Then, I decided to make schedules and being organized. In my schedule, was

included sleep time, lunch time, study time, praying time and even movie time!! I started to feel

less stressed about college the moment I applied that schedules in my life. Even if I couldn’t follow

everything by the book, at least things wouldn’t accumulate. I could find times to enjoy life and

time to study. Therefore, I became happier and more successful in what I was doing.

This personal experience support the claim that you should be organized in order to be happy

and successful in college. However, don’t push too hard: we are humans, not robots. Unpredicted

events might happen and sometimes you just have to let it go. But, remember that the most

important thing is not to procrastinate on purpose. It will make you feel overwhelmed and stressed.

This is why I believe that being organized in collge will help you to be happier and more

successful.
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References

Demir, M., & Weitekamp, L. A. (2007). I am so happy 'cause today I found my friend:

friendship and personality as predictors of happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8(2),

181-211.

Flynn M., & MacLeod S. (2015). Determinants of happiness in undergraduate university

students. College Student Journal, 49.3, 452. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu/ps/i.do?p=EAIM&u=mnamsumank&id=GAL

E|A429736079&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&authCount=1

Miendlarzewska, E. A., & Trost, W. J. (2013). How musical training affects cognitive

development: rhythm, reward and other modulating variables. Retrieved April 19, 2017,

from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3957486/
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