Artisans Reflection: Christine Zlotek

I was lucky enough to have my mentee almost back in full health today and definitely back in full spirit! Her name is Marissa and she has more sass than Gloria in Modern Family and I love every minute of it. She is great one on one and once she opens up, but she struggles at times with crowded rooms and loud spaces. Overcoming this struggle is our goal to work on this year together; she wants to spend more time in the common room with everyone and less in the side rooms.

Today we decided as a group of four, with another mentor and mentee, to go to Starbucks down the block. I asked Marissa a few times if she had a particular drink she liked or snack there and every time she repeatedly said “I’m not sure”. Yet the moment she set eyes on the word cinnamon she couldn’t get it out of her mind! She got three extra pumps in here cinnamon dochle latte and her smile was beaming. She isn’t always one to answer questions but she sure knows what she wants. The four of us got to sit in the cozy Starbucks and it was a good experience for Marissa to be in a pretty packed place.

Later after we had walked back to Artisans, we were quickly fixated on what to do for next week. Marissa and I both love to cook so we were looking up recipes. We found one we both were excited about and settled on a pasta salad recipe. I’m looking forward to making that with her next week! We also discovered both of our favorite food is steak, prepared median rare. I can’t say anything more about how amazing this day was, I think I’ll leave it at the median rare steaks that we were cheering and hugging about.

-Christine Zlotek

Seton of Gonzaga

The recipe that Christine and Marissa are planning on using!