By Cadence Kirst, Class of 2025
This article is a part of a series of student stories of growth curated for the 2025 One Event. If you enjoy this story, please donate and tell us which student’s story inspired you to give.
Since being at One Stone, I have felt this warmth, this positivity, this sense of hope. It wasn't a feeling that spawned from an experience, the One Stone community, or even me, but instead a person. Those joyous feelings were given to me by my mentor Sam Johnson. Sam has slowly become more and more of a beacon of light in my One Stone experience over the past four years. When I am trying to start a new project, he's there to offer me suggestions and new techniques. When I have accomplished something I am truly proud of, he's there to hype me up and show me how he's just as proud of me as I am of myself. When I am struggling and need to advocate for myself, Sam stands beside me to back me up and be my secondary voice.
Attending One Stone I’ve learned to embrace the unknown, to expect the unexpected, and to never have a set schedule. Things are constantly changing. At times that can just be the flow of One Stone, and other times it's incredibly stressful. But for me, Sam has been the one single constant. No matter how wild my One Stone journey gets he's there to help light the way. One mentor meeting can change my entire outlook on the day. I know I can come into school being stressed out of my mind, anxious about a Two Birds project, excited, sad, looking forward to a concert, confused, upset, and also thinking about 'what on earth am I going to write my research paper about', and simply walk into a mentor meeting holding all those feelings in a tangled ball. Then, Sam will meet me with a conversation, some awesome advice, a random side project, a silly story from when he was in high school, and plain old normality. I will walk out of my mentor meeting with the tangle of thoughts and feelings sorted out into a neat stack of priorities with a smile on my face.
Funnily enough, I haven’t always felt this way. My first year at One Stone I pushed back against having Sam as my mentor. I would actively avoid mentor meetings, try to stay out of Sam’s general path, and overall ignore his existence (sorry Sam). But my mom put me in check real quick. She told me to keep in mind that as much as I hate taking time out of my day to meet with Sam, he was also taking time out of his day to meet with me. At first I was very ignorant of that, but eventually I started putting effort into the meetings, showing up with a smile and an open mind. Thanks to my mom, I very slowly shifted my mindset. After the shift, Sam started to become a genuine mentor to me, not just a random dude I had to meet with at school. He shared stories from his high school and college experience that I found myself relating to, or at least intently listening to. He almost always got me started on some oddball foundry project that fostered my passion to make things and my desire to be a foundry lead. There was even a day when his creativity fueled my own and we created foam armor after school got out. And recently he’s been upgraded to the ultimate mentor status where he gets to hear about my personal life, whether family drama, adventures with friends, or the excitement of a new relationship.
Now I find myself seeking Sam out in the bustle of One Stone life for a mentor meeting, a quick catch up, a high five in passing, or even for a smile. Having Sam as my mentor has been a blessing. He’s my rock in the crazy river rapids that One Stone is. He is a light helping to guide me through my journey.
