Caleb looked at him for a long moment. "That's an honest thing to say," he said. It took me about 4 months to be able to say it, Derek said. So, I'm not claiming credit for speed. Caleb almost smiled.
"What do you want to do with it?" He asked. Derek sat forward. There's a mentorship structure being set up, he said. For employees who've been identified as high potential, but who haven't had access to the informal networks that usually drive advancement in places like this?
He paused. I want to be part of it, not as a beneficiary, as someone who knows how those informal networks work and can help people who've been excluded from them understand how to navigate them while we're in the process of making them more equitable. Caleb looked at him. You've thought about this, he said, for about 3 months, Derek said. I almost came in here twice before today.
What stopped you? Derek was quiet for a moment. I wasn't sure if I was doing it for the right reasons, he said. I didn't want to I didn't want to show up here with a redemption arc that was really about making myself feel better. And now now I think the reasons don't have to be pure to make the action useful, Derek said.
And I think waiting for pure reasons is another way of not doing the thing. Caleb held his gaze. "You're right," he said. Talk to the program coordinator. Tell them I sent you.
Derek nodded and stood to leave. At the door, he paused. "Can I ask you something?" He said. "Go ahead."
That first day when I came to your desk and basically interrogated you about why you were here. He stopped. What were you thinking when I walked away? Caleb considered this. I was thinking, he said, that you reminded me of someone I used to know.
Derek frowned slightly. Who me? Caleb said 20 years ago before I'd been on the other side of that conversation enough times to understand what it felt like. Derek stood in the doorway for a moment processing this. Then he nodded once and left.